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Show 1876.] CECUM COLI OF THE CAPYBARA. 21 which are but an extreme exaggeration of those observed in many of the allied forms. In most of those mammals in which a caecum is present, that organ is simply a direct continuation backwards of the colon beyond the place of junction of the small and large intestines. In some Rodents, however, this is not the case, the sacculated caecum in them not being a direct continuation of the larger gut, but a lateral diverticulum from a true but simple caecum. In his account of the anatomy of Capromys fournieri *, Prof. Owen remarks that the arrangement at the ilio-colic junction is such that " the two orifices of the blind intestine [that into the ileum and that into the colon] are analogous to the cardia and pylorus of the stomach ;" and in his 'Anatomy of Vertebrates 'f the same illustrious Fig. 1. Sacculated and simple ca?ca of the Capybara. The continuation of the colon is seen at a. The small intestine at its termination cannot be seen, being hidden in the proximal angular bend of the sacculated caecum. author tells us, with reference to the same animal, that " the caecum is marked off from the colon by a valvular structure, similar to that at the end of the ileum." This is an approximation to the condition which obtains in the animal under consideration. In the Capybara the small intestine enters the enormous saccu- * P. Z. S. 1832, p. 70. t Vol. iii. p. 425. |
