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Show IS I DR. J. MURIE ON SAIGA TARTARIC A. [June 9, III. VISCERAL ANATOMY. 1. Vascular Channels. The heart, 4 to 4± inches long and 2^ inches in diameter at the base, approaches more to the Antelopes' and Deer's in shape than to that of the Sheep. This arises from its being elongate, pyramidal, and taper pointed; for in the Sheep the apex is more blunt and obtuse. The deposition of fat around the basal end and on the pericardium is limited in quantity. A thin ossicle an inch long and *2 inch broad at its middle, lay within the muscular substance, close to the aortic orifice, in the adult male. The bone, as regards shape, was not unlike a diminutive broad first rib, one end being wider and twisted, like the costal head, the opposite extremity narrower. Fig. 9. Bone of the heart-nat. size. A single superior vena cava and an inferior one enter the right auricle from above and below. The facial veins and arteries (see fig. 8) follow the distribution met with in Bovidae generally. That vasculo-glandular reservoir the spleen, as Pallas shows (/. c. p. 43, tab. iii. fig. 11 e), is adherent to the left upper side of the paunch, a couple of inches from the cardiac orifice. It is flat and broad, some 6 by 4 inches in diameter. 2. Genito-urinary Apparatus. In the female the clitoris, the vagina, and the bicorned uterus, present no special features worthy of notice. The specimen examined, a young half-grown animal, had imperfectly developed mammary glands, upon which were four teats. In the male Saiga, Pallas curtly adverts to the testes, penis, and its prseputium ; but he omits reference to the prostate and Cowper's glands, which are present. (Vide fig. 10.) The scrotum is subglobular, and rather sessile than pendent. As Pallas observes, it is large-in the adult examined by me, equalling a small orange in size, and exteriorly covered by short white hairs. A considerable quantity of firm fat is imbedded within the scrotal sac, being deposited in greatest quantity at the root of the testes and around the cord. It forms indeed a septal division between the glands, and gives bulk to the scrotum. The cremaster muscle is developed as a broad band descending as low as to opposite the globus major. The strongly fibrous tunica vaginalis (t. v. reflexa) is semitranslucent; its visceral portion (t. vag. propria) is still more delicate, and the lower uniting fold (/) situated about *4 inch from the inferior end of the globus minor. |
