418 Pisces. 



somewhat longer than it is wide. The viscera which it contains are all 

 adapted to the shape or figure of this cavity, being short and thick, as 

 it were proportioned to a much smaller and shorter fish. The stomach 1 

 is a pretty large and almost round bag, a little flattened from side to 

 side, with a very fine internal villous coat. The intestine is small 2 , but 

 rather long in proportion. The duodenum passes out at the right side 

 about the middle of the stomach, then down and round the lower end 

 of the stomach to the left side, and comes up on this side as high as 

 the oesophagus, and then makes a turn backward and downward, encir- 

 cling the left side of the stomach ; it then comes towards the belly, and 

 passes along the inner surface of that cavity towards the under surface 

 of the head, in a pretty straight line, which may be called the rectum, 

 and opens just under the lower jaw or root of the tongue *. 



The liver 3 is divided into two lobes : it is small and flat, not propor- 

 tioned to the whole animal, but only to the vital parts ; the large trunks 

 of the vena cava hepatica ramify on its external surface, and there is 

 no fat in its substance. The gall-bladder is large, lying between the 

 two lobes and upon the stomach above the pylorus. The cystic duct 

 enters the duodenum just at its beginning. The pancreas is appendi- 

 culated as in many fishes, and opens by many orifices into the duo- 

 denum at its beginning. The spleen is large and very vascular. The 

 kidneys are large and long, lying on the whole back part of the abdo- 

 men, thickest at the lower end, which is bent a little forwards on the 

 lower part of the abdomen, where the ureters open into a pretty large 

 duct, or long bag, which passes along the belly towards the head, ac- 

 companying the rectum and opening externally close by the anus. This 

 bag seems to be intended as a bladder, for it is of a sufficient size to 

 contain a considerable quantity of urine. 



There are two roes, one on each side of the urinary bladder : they 

 are oblong bodies of a considerable length, and are of the true roe-kind, 

 similar to all of the fish class except the ray-tribe. The roes were in 

 an imperfect state; therefore I could not distinguish the male roes 

 from the female ; but, perhaps, the specimens were all males or all 

 females 4 . However, they were said to differ when alive. 



Of the Motion of the Blood. — It is a true fish, having but two cavities 



* Many animals have this retrograde direction of the last gut, particularly fish, 

 but none in so great a degree as this. 



1 [Hunt, Prep. Physiol. Series, No. 500.] 2 [lb. No. 628.] 



s [lb. Nos. 790, 791.] 



4 [The male organs are shown in the Hunt. Preps. Nos. 2379, 2380 ; the female 

 organs, in Nos. 3220, 3221, 3222.] 



