72 PROFESSOR OWEN ON THE AYE-AYE. 



orifices, and from this tract the fibres of the outer muscular layer radiate. A narrow 

 but well-marked crescentic fold projects into the cavity from the lesser curvature, four 

 lines to the right of the cardia, subsiding about an inch down the fore and hind walls : 

 this fold appeared after the cavity had been fully distended, and it marks out inter- 

 nally the division between the cardiac and pyloric compartments. The pylorus 

 is a subcircular aperture, above which projects a short thick longitudinal promi- 

 nence. 



Among the contents of the stomach were portions of a semitransparent colourless 

 pulp, which, under the microscope, were seen to consist of hexagonal cells, combined 

 with long fibres of a brown colour ; and these, under pressure, exhibited a moniliform 

 structure. In the cellular structure were traces of a spiral vessel. The whole was 

 indicative of the remains of tlie pulp of some tropical fruit. No evidence of larvae or 

 other insects was observed. 



The duodenum (PI. XXVI. fig. \,h), after its usual curve, crosses the spine below the 

 root of the mesentery, then turns up the left side to commence the three principal folds 

 of the small intestine (i), on the border of the mesentery, by which, with the caecum, 

 they are freely suspended. A duplicature of peritoneum is continued from the end of the 

 duodenum, and from the lower part of the beginning of the colon, to the first lumbar 

 vertebra, attaching them thereto. The colon, after a course of three or four inches, 

 forms a long narrow fold {ib. fig. 2, c, e), five inches in length, then passes to the left, 

 above and behind the root of the mesentery, and descends along the left lumbar and 

 hypogastric regions to form the rectum. 



The duodenum is about 4 hues in diameter. The length of the small intestines, when 

 detached from the mesentery, is about 4 feet. Here and there they show slight con- 

 strictions, as at i, i, fig. 1 . The length of the caecum (PI. XXVI. fig. 2,/), from the end 

 of the ileum (ib. b), is 2 inches 7 lines. The first inch (/) of the cscum is 10 lines in dia- 

 meter ; the rest (g), measuring 1 inch 9 lines in length, is 3 lines in diameter. The caecum 

 suddenly contracts to this dimension, and terminates rather obtusely here, resembling 

 an appendix vermiformis ; but this is not marked off by any valvular structure from the 

 wider part of the cacum, and it is continued, as in the human foetus, directly from the end 

 of the wider part, or caecum proper. 



The large intestines are about 1 foot 10 inches in length. The colon, moderately 

 distended, is 1 inch 2 Hnes in diameter at its commencement, and gradually decreases 

 in width. Beyond the first enlargements (c, c) it is not sacculated, but is slightly 

 puckered on a longitudinal band (x), which may be traced a few inches from the 

 beginning of the gut, where two or three pouch-Uke protrusions appear on inflation. 

 The ileocolic aperture is slit-shaped, bounded by two low ridges, that next the ceecum 

 being most produced. 



The contents of the colon were of a dark pultaceous character ; nothing more definite 

 could be distinguished in them than vegetable tissues like those in the stomach, but 



