OCR Text |
Show 958 MR. W. H. FLOWER ON HYOMOSCHUS AQUATICUS. [Dec. 12, except one natural rectangular bend upwards near the pyloric end. The length of this compartment when straightened is 7 inches, its greatest diameter 2| inches. Anterior surface of stomach of Hyomoschus aquaticus. One-fourth of nat. size. a. Oesophagus, b. Rumen, c. Reticulum, el. Rudiment of psalterium. e. Abomasus. /. Biliary duct. g. Spleen. On opening the cavities the villi on the internal surface of the rumen were seen to be long and narrow, especially towards the base of the compartment; they measured mostly y2^- inch in length. In tbe reticulum the villi are very sharp-pointed, as usual. The passage along the top of the reticulum from the oesophagus to the orifice leading to the true stomach is smooth, T inch long, and bounded by thick but not very prominent folds of membrane. This orifice is \ inch in diameter. The part which immediately follows the orifice (d), though it cannot be called a distinct compartment as in ordinary ruminants, is & inch in length, slightly dilated and marked off by a faint constriction from the remainder of the abomasus, from which, moreover, it is most distinctly separated by a thick opaque epithelium with short villi, like those covering the laminae of the psalterium in other ruminants ; there are also indications of longitudinal plications of the mucous membrane. The remainder of the last cavity has (as usual) a smooth soft lining membrane, free from villi. There is thus a decided indication or rudimentary condition of the psalterium or third compartment of the ruminant's stomach ; and contrasting this with the statement by Alph. Milne-Edwards, in his valuable monograph on the Chevrotains, that in the genus Tra- |