FOOT (A. W.) — NOTES ON THE DISSECTION OF SOME ANIMALS. 43 



with variolous pustules ; the ground colour of the viscus was of a pale 

 greenish-white. Submitted to the microscope, the sabulous deposit 

 seemed composed of amorphous granules ; the mineral acids had. no 

 action upon it. 



The occurrence of pebbles in the stomach of this animal is not 

 unusual. Hunter notes the presence of stones of considerable size, 

 " larger than the end of a man's thumb."*' Geoffroy St. Hilaire met 

 with stones in the stomach of the Egyptian Crocodile, and observed that 

 they were rendered smooth by the action of triturating the alimentary 

 substances. In twelve Alligators and Crocodiles which died in the 

 Zoological Gardens, Regent's Park, and were examined by Dr. Crisp, 

 the stomachs of all contained stones and pieces of wood.f These hard 

 bodies are swallowed by these animals by the same instinct which impels 

 the fowl to pick up sand and gravel ; for their digestive cavity shares 

 the character of stomach and gizzard, and forms a connecting link 

 between Reptiles and Birds. Blunter describes the stomach of the 

 Crocodile as "of the gizzard kind," and said this animal came nearer 

 to the fowl in the structure of its internal parts than any other he was 

 acquainted with. 



Yet, notwithstanding the shining lateral tendons and peculiar mus- 

 cular structure of the stomach of the Crocodile, Geoffroy St. Hilaire takes 

 exception to Hunter's statement that it is " of the gizzard kind," on the 

 grounds of its wanting a cuticular lining ; for there is no indication of 

 the appearance of gizzard plates in these animals ; their gastric analogies 

 to birds are on the outer, not the inner surface of the stomach. Profes- 

 sor Owen describes the lining membrane of this cavity as a smooth, uni- 

 form, villous surface, stained of a yellow colour. j It is true that in a 

 Crocodile (acutus) which he dissected, the interior of the stomach pre- 

 sented two smooth round patches, about the size of a crown piece, si- 

 tuated on opposite sides of the cavity ; they were not detachable as a 

 membrane distinct from the villous coast, and seemed to differ only in 

 having a smoother surface ; but, not finding these appearances again in 

 the same species, he considers it to have been an accidental variety. § 



Assuming, then, that the normal condition of the lining membrane 

 of the stomach of the Crocodile is as Professor Owen describes it, a 

 smooth, uniform, villous surface, the appearances in this animal were 

 sufficient to support the view that the digestive cavity was diseased, and 

 that the powdery sediment resulting from the attrition of the flints and 

 pebbles becoming adherent to the softened, eroded, or ulcerated mem- 

 brane, furnishes an explanation of the siliceous incrustation and sabulous 

 deposit remarked in the organ. The 115 round worms which were 

 found in the stomach are considered by Mr. Cobbold, with whom I have 

 communicated on the subject, to be referrible to Ascwis macroptora 



* "Essays and Observations," vol. ii., p. 337. 



t " Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London," part xxviii., p. l'J2. 1860. 



X " Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond.," 1830-31, p. 169. 



§ lb., 1830-31. 



