On the intestinal tract of mammals

I had the opportunity of examining the intestinal tract of the Indian Rhino which died at London Zoo in 1904. As in many large mammals, the length of the gut is small in proportion to the size of the animal. There is no distinct duodenal loop. Meckel's tract is relatively simple, consisting of a number of simple minor loops at the periphery of an elongated expanse of mesentery. The caecum is short, but very wide and capacious. The hind-gut repeats the pattern described in the tapir, consisting of a very long and extremely capacious colic loop and a wide, sacculated, but nearly straight rectal portion. The arrangement of the veins is essentially identical with that found in the tapir. Shown on fig. 24.