54 CARNIVORA. 



animals, and both are pretty long. The coarse hairs become longer 

 and stronger towards the back, where at last they make a kind of hog's 

 mane, which extends along the neck, back and tail ; but what is very 

 singular, when it has got upon the tail, it twists round the left to the 

 underside of the tail, and arrives there about the middle ; and then 

 proceeds along the under surface to the tip. The bones of the tail take 

 the same twist. 



The inferior vena cava is in contact with the upper or convex surface 

 of the diaphragm for some way : this increases the length of that vein 

 within the thorax; although it is not owing to the heart's being at 

 such a distance as one would imagine from the length of the vein. The 

 length of this vein in quadrupeds is owing to two circumstances ; first, 

 because the apex of the heart is turned more downward than in the 

 human, so that the basis of the heart is further removed; secondly, 

 because the heart is further from the back or spine than in the human ; 

 and, as the vein is obliged to lie on the spine in the abdomen, when it 

 perforates the diaphragm, it passes forward and upward to the right 

 auricle. 



The lungs are divided as in most quadrupeds. The stomach is very 

 like the cat's, only that the vessels do not pass unattached for so long 

 a way before they enter its coats. 



The duodenum passes a little up, and then down the right loins ; it 

 gets on the right of the mesentery at the root of that membrane, which 

 becomes longer and longer to about the middle between right and left ; 

 then becomes shorter and shorter to the left ; along the edge the intestine 

 is attached. When the small intestine has got to the root of the 

 mesentery, on the left side, it bends down the left side and enters the 

 colon, which passes down in a straight line to the pelvis, and there 

 forms the rectum 1 . The caecum is shorter than in the lion or cat. 

 Here then we have no zigzag turns and crossings in the line of the 

 intestines, as in many other animals. But this most probably arose 

 from the mesenteiy being untwisted; for in another which died in 

 perfect health, the duodenum passed to the left behind the mesentery 

 as common ; but I could easily have untwisted the mesentery, and pro- 

 duced the same effect as in the above described one. 



The epiploon is attached to the great curve of the stomach before, to 

 the duodenum on the right, to the pancreas behind, to the spleen and 

 diaphragm on the left. 



The pancreas has only one lobe, as in the genette, lying across the 

 spine. 



1 [Home, Comp. Anal. i. p. 430.] 



