58 STUDIES IN COMPAEATIVE ANATOMY. 



Hunter gives 17 feet as the length of the small intestine. 

 Mayer makes it 37 feet, while he gives the total length of the 

 intestines as 75 feet. Professor Owen's measurements, taken 

 from a young Indian elephant about 7 feet high at the shoulder, 

 are as follows^ : — 









Ft. 



In. 



Length of the small intestines. 





, 



38 







Circumference of ditto,, . 







2 







Length of caecum, . 







1 



6 



Circumference of caecum, 





. 



5 







Circumference of colon, . 





, 



6 







Total length of colon and rectum 



to- 







gether, .... 



. 





20 







Total length of intestinal canal, 



exclusive 







of the caecum. 





. 



58 



6 



Our own measurements have unfortunately been mislaid, 

 which is the more to be regretted that the statement of previous 

 observers are very discordant. 



Peritoneum. 



Hunter has remarked that the lymphatics and lacteals are 

 small. He found no lymphatic glands on the mesentery pro- 

 per ; there were several on the meso-colon, but these were not 

 larger than in man. 



" The peritoneum lining the elastic ventral wall of the abdo- 

 men in the elephant and rhinoceros is of unusual thickness 

 and strength ; the areolar tissue connecting _it to adjacent struc- 

 tures presents aponeurotic firmness ; the free surface of the 

 serous membrane I found to be white and opaque ; it is generally 

 transparent and opaline or colourless."^ The absence of fat 

 from all parts of the peritoneum has been remarked by more 

 than one dissector of the elephant. In our example the great 

 omentum was quite clear of fat, as indeed were all parts of the 

 body, except the fibroas pads of the soles of the feet and the 

 orbits. 



■■ Comp. Anat. of Vertebrates, vol. iii. p. 458. 



^ Owen, Comp. Anat. of Verteh-ates, vol. iii. p. 503. 



