484 Kneeland's Dissection of 
passes; the purpose of the net-work to absorb its nutritive 
portions. The intestine, cut open, 5 inches wide; 18 inches 
long. 
Below the spirals, the width of the intestine becomes sud- 
denly less; in this portion, the rectum, the walls were very 
thin: at the top, cut open, 2 inches wide ; gradually becoming. 
narrower to anus. As the spiral must have been in the small 
intestine, and the part below it must have been the rectum, 
(taking the anatomy of the higher animals as the standard of 
comparison) there was in this animal no colon, and no cecum ; 
and unlike the higher animals, the small intestine was larger 
than the rectum. 
About an inch from the end of the spiral, was a hollow 
glandular organ, about an inch square; its cavity was very 
small, the walls being 4 of an inch thick; its opening into the 
rectum was 2 lines in diameter: its contents, analyzed by Dr. 
Bacon, consisted of mucus: it would seem to be a gland for 
the secretion of mucus. 
~ The kidneys extended on each side of the spinal column, 
to which they were firmly bound down; they were of a cylin- 
drical shape, 5 feet in length, 2 inches in diameter. 
The ovaries consisted of two membranous sacs, on the 1n- 
ternal border of which was a light colored tubuliform glandu- 
lar mass, filled with innumerable granules, about half the size 
of a pin’s head: each ovary had a duct about the size ofa 
crow quill, extending nearly the whole length of the spinal 
column. esa 
This fish ought to take a high rank among the sharks, from 
the shape of the upper lobe of the tail, which is not so much 
prolonged as in sharks generally ; according to Prof. Agassr 
the long upper lobe of some adult sharks is the embryonte 
condition of the higher species: this, then, should take a 
high rank. The cartilaginous fishes are said to be the vy 
fishes which have a pancreas ; which, as far as this goes; pers 
place them, low as they are, above the osseous fishes. Mil vj 
(Op. citat. 1843, p. 126,) adds in a note, that a pancreas 6 
