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Show 1867.] MR. W. H. FLOWER ON HYOMOSCHUS AQUATICUS. 959 gulus, " Ce dernier estomac [the abomasus] nait directement du bonnet [reticulum] sans qu'il y ait a son origine, dans aucune des quatre especes que j'ai dissequees, le moindre indice de l'existence d'une partie comparable au feuillet [psalterium] des Ruminants or-dinaires"*, it might be inferred that in the structure of the stomach Hyomoschus formed a link between Tragulus and the true ruminants, instead of inclining in the opposite direction as commonly supposed. But the Tragulus javanicus, which I dissected for comparison with the present animal, showed precisely similar indications of a rudimentary psalterium ; and the same may be observed in a preparation of the stomach of a Tragulus kanchil in the College Museum, No. 554, Physiological Series, thus correctly described in the Catalogue*}-*-" The passage leading from the oesophagus to the third cavity is bounded by two low parallel ridges ; the longitudinal lamellae, which are the characteristics of this cavity in other ruminants, are wanting ; but as it appears to have had a cuticular lining, we may regard it as a rudimentary form of this cavity, and distinct from the fourth cavity, from which it is partially separated by a semilunar fold." The stomach of Hyomoschus presents, therefore, no obvious character by which it can be distinguished from that of a member of the allied genus Tragulus. The same may be said to be the case with all the other portions of the alimentary canal. The small intestine is about 16 feet in length; the large intestine 6 feet, not sacculated, scarcely wider than the small intestine, averaging rather less than | inch in diameter when fully distended. In the last foot of its length it gradually widens, attaining nearly 1 inch. The caecum is perfectly simple, 3^- inches long. The spleen lies on the diaphragmatic surface of the stomach, in the groove which divides the reticulum from the rumen (fig. 2, g). It is flattened and pyriform, the largest end being turned forwards and to the right. Its length is 2 inches, its greatest breadth -J inch. On the left margin, rather behind the middle, is a deep notch; the portion behind this is thinner and flatter than that in front. The liver presents a smooth upper surface, irregularly oval in outline, the broadest end to the right, 4j inches long from side to side and 21 inches in greatest antero-posterior width, undivided, except by a notch on the anterior border separating a smaller left from a larger right lobe. On the under surface the left lobe has no further subdivisions. The right lobe has two accessory lobes : - the smaller, but most distinct, pointed and tongue-like, close to the longitudinal fissure, near the centre of the organ ; the other, broader and with the free extremity more obtuse, close to the right lateral margin. The transverse fissure lies between these. The gall-bladder is large, and projects freely beyond the anterior margin of the right lobe. * ' Recherches Anatomiques, Zoologiques, et Paleontologiques sur la famille des Chevrotains,' Paris, 1864, p. 62. t ' Descriptive and Illustrated Catalogue of the Physiological Series of Comparative Anatomy contained in the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons,' London, vol. i. 2nd edit, 1852, p. 168. |