1910.] ANATOMY OF HIPPOPOTAMUS AMPHIBIUS. 221 



These numerous memoirs between them deal with all the 

 organs of the body. The recent dissection of a, male specimen 

 which died in the Society's Gardens has enabled me to verify 

 a number of the recorded facts, and also to add some few details 

 to our knowledge of the anatomy of the Hippopotamus. In 

 particular, I believe that I am able to compare more satisfactorily 

 than has yet been done the intestinal tract of this animal with 

 that of its allies. 



When the animal is cut open the stomach is seen to occupy the 

 greater part of the abdominal cavity ; it completely hides the 

 liver, which is behind it. A transversely running section of 

 the colon is nearly all that is visible of that gut, and it lies 

 between sections of the small intestine. The only part of the gut 

 upon which I made observations worth recording as a contribu- 

 tion to our knowledge of the anatomy of this animal, was the 

 colon. Of this section of the gut G ratio] et * wrote : " Le colon 

 ascendant decrit une ligne sineueuse dans laquelle en pent 

 compter six anses successives. 11 y a ensuite un colon transverse, 

 une S iliaque mediocrement courbee, placee tres-pres de la ligne 

 mediane, et enfin un rectum tres-musculeux." This description 

 is not in the present state of our knowledge of the mammalian 

 gut enough to indicate the relationships with other Artiodactyles. 

 Dr. Crisp figures the entire alimentary canal of this Pachyderm, 

 but gives so generalised a figure that no details can be ascertained 

 beyond the well-known absence of caecum, and the proportions, 

 roughly speaking, between the long small and the short large 

 intestine. 



The figure of Gratiolet is better, and represents some of the 

 essential features of this gut in the Hippopotamus as I would 

 interpret them. The six successive loops of the colon are given 

 in his illustration, and then the sharp bend backwards to form 

 the straight running descending colon and rectum. According 

 to Flower, " The colon is comparatively short, about one-tenth of 

 the whole intestine, and instead of the spiral convolution found 

 in most Artiodactyles, its first or ascending part is thrown into 

 about six transverse folds, and then it pursues the usual course 

 of the transverse and descending colon." This description agrees 

 entirely with the figure of Gratiolet. There are, as I believe, no 

 further notes upon the alimentary canal of the Hippopotamus 

 tending to explain its relations to and differences from the 

 alimentary canal of other Artiodactyles, save a brief reference by 

 Dr. Mitchell in his comparative survey of the Mammalian gut t. 

 The colon of the example of Hippojjotaraus which I have myself 

 examined appeared to be like that of other examples ; but my 

 own observations enable me to add some details which serve to 

 fix more plainly, as I think, the correspondence between the colon 

 of this animal and that of others among its allies. It is to be 

 noted, in the first place, that the colon has, to begin with, a 



* Loc. cit. p. 395. 



f Trans. Zool. Soc. vol. xvii. 



