356 ON THE ANATOMICAL PECULIAHITIES 
longer than the body of the animal, and convoluted into 
numerous turnings, — though the whole canal, reckoning 
from the mouth to tho. vent, is about the same length ; the 
intestinal tube proper is considerably shorter, and does not 
exceed one-third of its length. By means of the spiral 
valve, however, it is divided into a series of cells, which 
wind round the axis between it and the cylinder, and v/hich 
thereby lengthen the intestine at least to thrice its direct 
extent. The food is thus compelled to travel a route great- 
ly more circuitous, than if it were passing through a simple 
straight tube ; and if it is not enabled more certainly to 
undergo the changes necessary to thorough digestion, it is 
prevented from escaping through the bowel before the up- 
per portions have undergone the requisite changes. This 
is the second instance in the finny tribes of a contrivance 
to compensate for the short course and the direct tract of 
the alimentary canal. 
To complete this account of the alimentary organs of the 
Sturgeon, I shall add a few words on the liver and spleen. 
The former is one consisting of five distinct lobes, of glan- 
dular structure, provided with a duct, a gall-bladder, and 
common duct. Two of these lobes are connected by a 
membranous slip, above to the upper extremity of the oeso- 
phagus on the right side, and below to the stomach by 
ligamentous matter enclosing the hepatic vessels. Two 
more lobes are also connected to the stomach, and in the 
fissure between these is lodged the gall-bladder, the duct 
of which passes outwards, to enter the duodenum imme- 
diately below the pyloric orifice by the papillary process 
formerly noticed. 
The spleen is peculiar in being attached, not only to the 
outer surface of the stomach, bnt to that of the duodenum, 
in its first or descending division. It is a long, narrow, 
pink-coloured organ, not unlike the tongue of an animal ; 
