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Show 1889.] ANATOMY OF RHINOCEROS SUMATRENSIS. 9 Rhinoceros were kept for some weeks while the muscles were course of dissection. In performing this task we were greatly assisted by Mr. Tonks, now Physician at the Free Hospital, Grays Inn Road; for most of the drawings which illustrate this paper (woodcuts, figs. 3-10) we are also indebted to that gentleman. Both the individuals were referred on their arrival at the Gardens to Rhinoceros sumatrensis; subsequently Mr. Sclater considered that they were probabty examples of his species Rhinoceros lasiotis, of which the type is still living in the Gardens. Without going fully into the question of the distinctness of Rh. lasiotis from Rh. sumatrensis, which cannot be done properly until the death of the type specimen, it may be remarked that there are no characters in the skull which would seem to justify such a distinction. In making a comparison of the skull of these specimens with Rh. sumatrensis, particular attention was paid to a paper by Prof. Flower in the 'Proceedings'1 of this Society, in which a skull possibly identical with Mr. Sclater's Bh. lasiotis was compared with Rh. sumatrensis. Assuming that problematical skull to represent Rh. lasiotis, it is clear that neither of the individuals discussed in the present paper belong to that species, for in all the points raised by Prof. Flower these individuals are typical Rh. sumatrensis. With regard to the visceral anatomy of this species we have not much to add to the description by Garrod ; and the species does not differ materially from Rh. sondaicus, which we have described somewhat fully in the ' Transactions' (vol. xii.) of this Society. Garrod describes the ridges upon the hard palate of Rh. sumatrensis but gives no figure of it. The accompanying drawing (fig. 1, p. 8) has been made for the purpose of a comparison with the hard palate oi Rh. sondaicus, which has been figured by us in our memoir upon that Rhinoceros. The csecum and the neighbouring parts of the intestines have been figured by Garrod ; and as his figure illustrates the principal points in the anatomy of this region of the gut, we have thought it hardly worth while to give a further illustration. In the loop which is formed by the commencement of the colon, the distal portion is of a narrower calibre, as shown in Garrod's figure. The mesentery which unites the opposite sides of the loop has a peculiar fold upon it which is illustrated in our figure of Rh. sondaicus. In that Rhinoceros the fold in question (loc. cit. pi. xxxiv. figs. 1-3) arises near to the csecum and receives a branch from one of the divisions of the colic artery ; at the opposite extremity of the colic loop the band divided into two, which were attached to the surface of the mesentery uniting the parietal sections of the colon ; at this point the artery borne by the fold also divides and becomes continuous at two points with the colic artery. It appeared to us at the time we were investigating the anatomy of Rh. sondaicus that the azygos artery borne by this fold might serve to supply this 1 P. Z. S. 1878, p. 634. |
