338 ON THE ANATOMICAL PECULIARITIES 
phagus. The points at which they cease indicates the ter- 
mination of the latter tube, and the commencement of the 
stomach ; and they may, in this respect, be regarded as 
affording one of those analogical proofs of the cessation of 
the epidermis at the cardiac extremity of the oesophagus, 
which the anatomist finds in the animal kingdom at large : 
For, though the texture and appearance of this membrane 
are so different in] the sturgeon and fishes generally, from 
what we find them in quadrupeds, yet the transition from 
the pearl-white, opaque, tuberculated membrane of the 
oesophagus to the fawn-coloured villo-mucous membrane of 
the stomach, is so well marked that it cannot escape the 
most superficial observation. (Fig. 1. C). 
The upper extremity of the oesophagus, on its posterior 
surface, is connected by ligamentous slips to two of the 
lobes of the liver. With this organ, however, there is of 
course no communication. The tube is also fixed to the 
anterior surface of the vertebrae and incumbent muscles, by 
means of cellular tissue. The superior or pharyngeal end 
of the tube communicates with the mouth ; the lower or 
cardiac opens into the stomach. 
The latter organ, which now comes under examination, 
is, in the sturgeon, a large musculo-membranous bag, of a 
shape somewhat fusiform, or like the oblong spheroidal 
figure of a distaff. Its entire length, in the specimen before 
me, measures ^5 or 26 inches, but it underwent a curva- 
ture about 11 or 12 inches from its cardiac or oesophageal 
end. Narrow at the cardiac and pyloric extremities, it 
bulges, about an inch or two below the former, into a large 
sac, with a diameter of at least 5 inches. In this state it 
descends, and passes a little to the left side of the vertebral 
column, for about 10, 11, or 12 inches, forming a large 
and capacious sac, which may be regarded as the cardiac or 
larger division of the organ in which the first part of the 
