Morphological studies were conducted on the skull of a hippopotamus brought to the Veterinary college for postmortem examination. Skull of the hippopotamus was huge and notable for its little brain case and high supra-orbital ridges. The skull had a larger splanchnocranium than the neurocranium. From the dorsal view, the skull had a watch glass appearance because of its narrow middle portion (at the region of maxillae) and wide caudal and rostral portions. Maxilla showed a large Eminenta canina and two infraorbital foramina leading to two separate infraorbital canals. The premaxilla lodged two huge incisors and just above the central incisor, there was a large rough eminence for the elevated nostrils. Three to four large rounded lacrimal bullae were seen on the floor of the bony orbit. Frontal bone presented a strongly convex smooth supra-orbital ridge that formed upper margin of the orbit which projected from the surface of the skull. The median sagittal crest was very high that diverged to accommodate the concave forehead in front. Temporal fossa was very extensive. Caudal surface of the skull showed a concave nuchal surface and the external occipital protuberance was in the form of a crest. The paramastoid process and external auditory process were very short. Bulla tympanica was conical with a pyramidal muscular process. Anatomical peculiarities of the skull and their functional significance are discussed.

Histology, lectin histochemistry and ultrastructure of interdigital gland in sheep was studied using six adult cross bred sheep of either sex collected from the Meat Technology Unit, College of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Mannuthy. The manus and pes were detached from the rest of limbs and after recording the gross observations, the interdigital glands were fixed in 10 per cent neutral buffered formalin and processed for histological examinations. Stratified squamous epithelium with a prominent keratin layer lined the lumen, similar to the skin over the dorsal surface of manus and pes. The epidermis presented mucosal folds, which projected into the lumen. The dermis contained small sebaceous glands, hair follicles of different sizes, arrector pili muscles and apocrine sweat glands. The secretory epithelium of sweat glands was lined with a simple layer of cuboidal and relatively flattened cells. The excretory ducts of these glands were lined by cuboidal cells, with darker appearance than its secretory portion. The fibrous capsule was composed of dense connective tissue with collagen, adipose cells, blood vessels and nerve fibers. Glandular secretion and the granules in the stratum granolosum of the surface squamous epithelium showed positive reaction for lectin Ulex europaeus (UEA-I). The apocrine nature of sweat glands was revealed in the ultrastructural studies by scanning electron microscope. Keywords: Interdigital gland, sheep, histology, lectin histochemistry and ultrastructure

In mammals, the spinal cord forms a long, roughly cylindrical structure with cervical and lumbar enlargements. It is anchored in the vertebral canal, enclosed by meninges. The cord is protected by the epidural fat and terminates as the conus medullaris, which varied in level at different stages of gestation. The weight and length of the cord have a significant correlation in between them and with age, body weight, CRL, and vertebral column length and other body parameters. All cord segments did not correspond to the corresponding vertebrae. Initially, the spinal cord extended the entire length of the vertebral canal. Later it loose its correspondence with vertebral segments as gestation proceeds.