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Show 1889.] MR. F. E. BEDDARD ON TAPIRUS TERRESTRIS. 255 the intestinal mesentery on their way to and from the caecum a small mesenteric fold (fig. ], a) was attached for a short distance to the caecum. The caecum is thrown into sacculations by four fibrous bands running from end to end of the caecum and at approximately equal distances from each other; of these the band to which the ileo-caecal mesentery is attached is the least conspicuously developed. This is rather remarkable, for in the Rhinoceros (Rh. sondaicus) the band which lies on the opposite side of the csecum has disappeared, and in the Horse is fused a considerable way before the end of the csecum with one of the lateral bands **. At its commencement the colon was enormously enlarged and intimately bound to the caecum by fibrous bands as in the Rhinoceros. The looped arrangement of the colon is identical with that of the Horse and Rhinoceros ; the distal narrow portion was not so distinctly marked as in Rhinoceros, but this apparent difference may be really due to inflation. As in Rh. sondaicus each loop of the colon was furnished with a considerable artery (fig. 1, d) and vein attached by a fold of mesentery to the surface of the colon ; the blood-vessels and the folds were continuous at the extremity of the loop. The American Tapir furthermore resembles the Rhinoceros in the presence of a small free fold (fig. 1, e) which arises from the surface of the membrane uniting the two halves of the colic loop. As will be seen by a comparison of the accompanying drawing with the figures of the Rhinoceros's caecum published by Mr. Treves and myself (pi. xxxiv.), this fold appears to be on the opposite side. The omentum was large and bore some fat; it was fixed to the transverse colon and to the kidney. The spleen measured 13| inches in length and 3 inches greatest breadth ; it bad a conspicuous notch on one side near to the broad end. The liver is more like Murie's figure (4, plate iv. fig. 7) of the liver of T. indicus than Parker's (10, woodcut fig. 2, p. 770). It has a well-developed Spigelian and caudate lobe. The right central lobe is larger than the left. There is of course no gall-bladder. The heart possesses a well-developed moderator band formed of four limbs, of which three are attached to the free wall of the right ventricle and one to the septal wall. According to Parker (10) this structure does not occur in the Indian Tapir. As in that species, the subclavian and carotid arteries all arise from a single innominate trunk. The lungs agreed perfectly well with Parker's description of the lungs in the Indian species. I noticed on the right side an epar-terial bronchus. The generative organs I did not dissect; the penis is well illustrated in Eudes-Deslougchamps's figures. 1 Parker only describes three bands in T. indicus; the one that has vanished appears to be the one that is feebly developed in the American Tapir. |
