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Show 428 MR. W. A. FORBES ON THE AFRICAN ELEPHANT. [May 6, capacious large intestine 16 feet1. The latter was arranged on a mesocolon, jnst as in Prof. Flower's description2 of the Indian species. The caecum was large and sacculated, forming a broad and blunt cone 22 inches long. It lay on the right side, near the middle line of the belly, pointing forwards. Prof. Flower (I.e.) found it in a similar position on the left side in a fcetal African Elephant. The mucous membrane of the duodenum is raised up into irregularly transverse, almost dendritic, closely set, slightly elevated rugae. These continue throughout the whole length of the small intestine, but towards the ileum become arranged more longitudinally. For about 6 inches before its opening into the large intestine the ileum is surrounded internally by large, elevated, pitted glandular patches, caused by a breaking-up and intersection of the rugae, and somewhat resembling an immensely broadened Peyer's patch. For about the last 1 j inch of the ileum these patches disappear, leaving the mucous membrane only slightly longitudinally wrinkled. The longest of these elevated patches is about 1^ inch long. The ileo-caecal valve is only represented by the prominent edges of the ileum, which project into the colon in a ring-like manner. The ileum is here, when cut up and laid flat, 4\ inches across. The mucous membrane of both colon and caecum is smooth, with only slight irregular folds. Liver.-All authors from Perrault onwards have described the Elephant's liver as being composed of two lobes. In his lectures on the organs of digestion of the Mammalia, published some years since in the 'Medical Times and Gazette,' Prof. Flower (I. c. Oct. 5, 1872, p. 372), thus describes this organ (presumably in the Indian form) :- " The liver is small for the size of the animal and of simple form, being only divided by an umbilical fissure into two lobes, of which the right is the larger." But this statement does not quite acurately describe the facts of the case. As may be seen from the annexed figures (figs. 2 and 4, p. 426) taken from drawings by Prof. Garrod (who was the first to point this out to me), of the liver of Elephas indicus, the supensory ligament runs not in, but a little to the right of, the large notch which has been taken for the umbilical fissure by most authors, and is there connected, as usual, by a thin membranous expansion with the round ligament. In this species there is no umbilical notch visible3. In Elephas africanus (figs. 3 and 5, p. 427), the suspensory ligament lies still further to the right of the large notch, and there is a conspicuous umbilical notch (about 2\ inches deep), visible on both surfaces of the liver. From a comparison of the two livers it becomes clear that in both species the liver consists of three lobes, a right lobe (slightly divided 1 Perrault gives 38 feet and 22 feet as the lengths of the small and large intestines respectively in his specimen ; so that the ratios of the two measurements are nearly the same. The caecum measured li toot. 2 Med. Times and Gazette, Oct. 5, 1872, p. 372. 3 In a liver of E. indicus, in the Royal College of Surgeons (810 F ) there is visible, at the place where the round ligament is lost in the substance of tbe liver, a narrow fissure, which runs obliquely for some way towards the margin, but does not reach it; so that there is no notch formed. |