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Show 1867-] DR. E. CRISP ON THE HIPPOPOTAMUS. 601 5. On some Points connected with the Anatomy of the Hippopotamus (Hippopotamus amphibius). By EDWARDS C R I S P , M.D., F.Z.S. &c. The animal, a part of the anatomy of which I am about to describe, is the only one that has been dissected in this country. In France one or two young Hippopotami at birth have been examined; but the only record I have met with is in the 'Annales des Sciences Naturelles,' 1860, p. 376, " Recherches sur le systeme sanguin de l'Hip-popotame," by the late Professor Gratiolet, a paper I shall have to refer to hereafter. It is probable that other accounts of the anatomy of this animal may exist; but I have not taken much trouble to find them, as I prefer working the matter out in my own way. On a recent visit to Paris I was told by Professor Milne-Edwards, to whom I pointed out the presence of skin-glands and the colic-gland, to be hereafter described, " that the anatomy of the Paris specimen had not been completed." I saw casts of the external muscles of this young animal and of the injected abdominal vessels at the Museum of Comparative Anatomy at the Jardin des Plantes, the latter made, probably, for the purpose of illustrating Gratiolet's paper. The Hippopotamus I have dissected was burnt to death at tbe Crystal Palace at the end of last year ; its age was fourteen months and a few days, aud it weighed about seven or eight cwt. The length from nose to anus was 68 inches ; the circumference in the largest part of the body 82 inches, that of the neck behind the ear 44 inches. In consequence of the thickness of its skin, its interior parts were for the most part intact and uninjured. I purchased the dead animal, and had the advantage of dissecting it in m y own garden, where I took casts and drawings of all the important parts of its anatomy. The skeleton is also in my possession. One side of the animal was well roasted. I supplied some of m y friends with the meat cooked gipsy fashion, and I partook of it several times myself. Its flavour was excellent, and the colour of the flesh was whiter than any veal I have ever seen. In Knight's 'English Cyclopaedia of Natural History,' under the article Hippopotamus, is the following: -"With regard to minor details, the flesh of the Wasser-ochs is much esteemed as au article of food." In the first catalogue of the African Museum we read that it is much in request both among the natives and the colonists, and that the epicures of Cape Town do not disdain to use their influence with the country farmers to obtain a preference in the matter of Sea-cow's speck (as the fat which lies immediately under the skin is called when salted and dried). In the animal in question this fat was about lk inch in thickness. And let me here make another digression. It has been said that elephants examined in this country are free from fat; but on the last I inspected, a female that died in the Society's Gardens, tbe fat (of an PROC. ZOOL. Soc-1867, No. XXXIX. |
