Descriptive catalogue of the preparations in the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland / by John Houston.

  • Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. Museum.
Date:
1834-1840
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Descriptive catalogue of the preparations in the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland / by John Houston. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    showing the great size, and number of the nervous ramifica- tions distributed along the margins and point.—J. S. A. a. 157. The tongue of a wild-duck. {an. bosch.) Its structure is complex : the tip consists of a semicircular piece of elastic horn with a double row of marginal fringe, from which a plate of bone runs back through the lower part of the tongue to be articulated with the os-hyoides : the dor- sum near the base is elevated in the middle by a thick coat- ing of cuticle, and at the sides is furnished with several rows both of horny and soft papillse. A. a. 171, The oesophagus of a turtle, {testudo mydas,) The whole mucous surface presents a stratum of numerous, large, sharp, horny papillae, lying on their sides and pointed in the direction of the stomach.—J. S. A. a. 172, A piece of cuticle removed by maceration from the surface of the oesophagus of a turtle and prepared by drying. The cylindrical form of the canal is retained in the cuticle for a length of about three inches, and the form and position of the papillae are preserved as accurately as in the wet preparation, marked 171. The strength of the cuticular membrane is so great as to have allowed of being turned in- side out, after detachment from the chorion.—J. H. A. a. 177. The tongue of an alligator, {lacerta allig.) Its surface is smooth, without papillae, and covered with a firm opaque cuticle. The nerves, exhibited on the lower surface, are remarkably large, and decussate in the mesian line,—their branches passing to supply the sides of the or- gan o]iposite to those at which the trunks are placed. The late Mr. Shekleton, who noticed this fact in 1822, has re- marked, “that it is the most clear case of nervous decussa- tion he is acquainted with.”—J. S. A. a. 179. The tongue of a chameleon, {lacerta chame- leon.') remarkable for its powers of darting to a distance of several inches to seize the insects it feeds on. The whole animal is preserved, and the tongue partially drawn from the mouth.—J. S, A. a. 180. The os-hyolides and tongue of a chameleon: {lacerta chameleon,) the os-hyoides consists of a body, a long style on which the tongue is folded when at rest in the mouth, and four cornua for the attachment of inuscles. The tongue is divisible into an erectile and prehensile portion, the former, next to the os-hyoides, is shown from the length to which it has been stretched in the preparation, to be very extensible, to be traversed with bloodvessels filled with quick- silver, to be accompanied on each side by a long muscle, the
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