OCR Text |
Show 1877.] THE CHINESE WATER-DEER. 791 The spleen is circular, flat on its gastric, and convex on its parietal surface. The liver (fig. 1, p. 790) has no gall-bladder, therein being quite cervine. There are one or two minor lobules so situated as to develop a spurious cystic fossa ; and what is still further interesting is, that in that fossa there is a white fibrous cord which runs from the transverse fissure nearly to the ventral margin of the abdominal surface of the right lobe, exactly in the situation of a gall-bladder. Once previously in a Deer (Cervus virginianus, I believe) have I seen a similarly situated fibrous cord, which I can hardly believe to be any thing else than an atrophied gall-bladder, although I was not able to trace its connexion with the bile-duct on account of the bad state of preservation of the specimen. The Spigelian lobe is proportionally well developed, being tongue-shaped (or rusiform) as in the genus Rusa. The caudate lobe is of fair size. The umbilical fissure is shallow, the left hepatic lobe being slightly smaller than the right, both being of a square shape. The intestines measure 9 feet 8 inches, the small intestines 7\ feet long, the large 2 feet 2 inches. The caecum is 1^ inch long. No trace is visible of an ileo-caecal gland. There are 2\ colic coils, there being an irregular reversed half-loop in the returning portion of the spiral. Iu the bicorn uterus of this new-born animal the cotyledonary papillae are as manifest as in that of the pregnant adult. There are four in one cornu and three in the other, the highest of these in the latter being particularly large. I have, in m y paper on the visceral anatomy of the Ruminautia (P. Z. S. 1877, p. 12), mentioned that in a pregnant uterus of Hydropotes, which was lent me kindly by Mr. Ewart, of University College, there were three cotyledons in one cornu and five in the other, which agrees very closely with the specimen under consideration. The brain is very much like that of the Puclu Deer (Cervus pudu) figured by Prof. Flower-*, mainly differing in that the hippocampal gyrus is much less conspicuous upon the superior aspect. It is considerably more convoluted than that of Moschus moschiferus, upon the typical Ruminant pattern. I take the opportunity of figuring it (vide fig. 2, p. 792) from above. Reviewing the above-described anatomical features, the differences between the visceral anatomy of Hydropotes inermis and Moschus moschiferus clearly indicate the slightness of their relationship. In the former we find a fairly convoluted brain, a quadruplicate psalterium with 10 primary laminae, no ileo-caecal gland, no gallbladder, two and a half colic coils, and an oligocotyledonophorous uterus ; whilst iu the latter the brain is comparatively smooth, the psalterium is dupliciplicate, with 20 or so primary laminae, a large ileo-caecal gland, a gall-bladder, three and a half colic coils, and a specialized linear cotyledonary arrangement. In other words, Hydropotes is typically Cervine, whilst Moschus is any thing but so. To what group of the Cervidae Hydropotes is most allied there is 1 P. Z. S. 1875, p. 177. |