Edward Percival Wright

“ The small intestines make two principal convolutions, and are kept in their place by a well-developed mesentery. I could detect no trace of a pancreas. As the intestine approaches the rectum, it becomes excessively narrow, and at last ends almost by intussusception (Fig. 5) ; the wide and capacious rectum ends in the cloaca. Before examining the internal structure of these parts, it may be well to compare them with similar organs occurring in the salamanders. For this purpose I have selected Triton cristatus and Salamander maculosa. ”

“ The transverse fibres are more abundant towards the pyloric orifice, and here the coats of the intestine are somewhat thicker; there is no lack of an intermediate cellular membrane between the muscular and mucous coats, but it is very thin.
"The serous investment is very thin, and, having enveloped both sides of the stomach, it is prolonged into two folds: one, the right and lower, going to the liver, forms the gastro-hepatic ligament: the other, the left and higher, goes to the spleen, not placed as Cuvier thinks, in the centre of the mesentery, but against the left side of the stomach. ”

“ 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 imperfectly figured in one of the Plates; [2] when inflated, it is pyriform; in the empty condition, it assumes the outline of the liver (see Plate II, Fig. 3) . The biliary ducts open into the intestine, just where it is connected with the liver, by a common duct. ”

“ 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 ”

“ 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. ”