Material for the Study of Ruminants. 



7 



holte mechanische Bearbeitung cher entb'èhrlich ist». In this point 

 J agree perfectly with Dr. Boas. But when be says that the intestinal 

 canal of the small animals have smaller quantities of food »zu bewäl- 

 tigen» and that they therefore have less need for a well developed 

 psalterium I cannot agree with his reasoning any longer. Of course 

 the quantities of food needed by a small animal is absolutely smaller 

 than that required by a larger, but comparatively the former needs 

 fully as much or more than the latter, and if both feed on the same 

 kind of food it is as important for the small animal as for the large 

 to let the food go through an effective treatment from the side of 

 the digestive organs. It is thus, according to my opinion, not the size 

 of the animal, but the foodmaterial which in the first instance influen- 

 ces and causes the different development of the digestive apparatus. 

 The size of the animals may. however, be of secondary importance 

 because it is easier for a small animal to find sufficient quantities of 

 better and more nourishing food while, on the other hand, the large 

 animal may be obliged to take its refuge in coarser food as well only to 

 get the quantity needed, and then this influences the development of 

 the digestive organs. 



The length of the small intestine of the Black-buck is 895 cm.. 

 The duodenal loop is rather short and ductus choledochus opens into 

 the same about 20 em. from the pylorus. The general arrangement 

 of the small intestine is as usual, but the mesentery by which it is 

 attached to the peripherical coil of the large intestine is very short or 

 narrow, as a rule only measuring 2 '/2— 2 cm. In this respect Antilope- 

 cervicapra resembles the ovine group and differs from the common ox 

 as well as from the Gnu 1 ). 



The ileum enters into the caecum about 12 cm. from the blind 

 end of the latter. The transversal diameter of the caecum is about 

 4 cm. The colon continues with a similar diameter as the caecum in 

 a forward direction for about 0 cm. from the ileocsecal opening. Then 

 it bends back upon itself and forms with a somewhat diminished dia- 

 meter (2 72 cm.) a loop, ansa proximalis, which extends 10 cm. back- 

 värds. It then turns again forwards behind the caecum and towards 

 the median line where the spiral coils begin. If the beginning of the 

 spiral is counted from this point the colon makes two centripetal coils,. 



') Gorif. my paper on the soft anatomy of the Gnu K. Vet. Akad. Handl. Bd. 35. 

 Stockholm 1901. 



