Page:Natural History Review (1861).djvu/74

62 Before proceeding to treat of the alimentary canal, I may take this opportunity to refer to a paper by Sir Everard Home, in the Philosophical Tranactions for 1824, "On the Generative Organs of the Mexican Proteus." The paper itself, so far as anatomy is concerned, contains little that is noteworthy. The specimens dissected were discovered by Bullock, in a lake three miles above Mexico—this lake being some 8000 feet above the sea level, and of 60° of temperature. Those taken at Lesenco are brought by the peasantry to the Mexican markets in thousands, in strings of from sixty to seventy each. This paper, however, is illustrated, and the artist has done his work, and done it well; and his master has given names to the different parts figured. From a careful comparison of the plates representing the organs of generation in the male and female axolotl, with my own preparations, I am prepared to acknowledge the very general correctness of these fine drawings. The organs in the female, in an immature state, are likewise figured; and the ovaries are neither so small, even in an unimpregnated condition; nor the oviducts so delicate as to afford any difficulty in seeing them, to an ordinary investigator; even the kidneys and urinary bladder (?) are quite perceptible to the most careless observer.

On opening the walls of the abdomen, from the junction of the pectoral muscles to the curious cloacal aperture, and turning back the muscles, the following viscera are seen (vide Pl. II., fig. 1),—First, the large and well-marked liver, slightly divided into two lobes by the entrance of the suspensory ligament; next the convolutions of the intestines, ending in the strongly-marked straight rectum; on each side of which we find two glandular bodies—the supposed Cowper's glands of Sir Everard Home; above these, and below the coils of intestine, the apices of the kidneys are to be seen. If we now remove the left lobe of the liver, we will discover the stomachal portion of the alimentary canal of an elongated shape—the œsophageal portion, as Cuvier says, a little plumpish and enlarged, and the pyloric end much contracted. But we also have no difficulty in finding a glandular organ, closely attached to the middle-third of the stomach, and tied down to it by a mesenteric attachment (vide Eig. 2), which is the spleen—said by Cuvier to be placed in the midst of the mesentery, and to be very small. In Fig. 2 it is represented of the natural size. At a short distance below the junction of this gland with the stomach, the intestine contracts, and twists upon itself. There is no true pyloric valve, but this turn in the intestine to all intents and purposes acts as one. The intestine next proceeds towards the liver. This organ is large, its upper surface concave, its lower convex; it is divided by the suspensory ligament, which attaches it to the walls of the abdomen, into two lobes; in the adult male it is of a dark brownish colour, mottled; it overlaps the stomach and portions of the small intestine. The right lobe is the larger, and is slightly notched on its outer free margin, to receive the well-developed gallbladder, which, though not mentioned in the text by Cuvier, is very