VEINS OF FISHES. 



465 



308 



a single file of blood-discs, and connecting the termination of the 

 arteries with the commencement of the veins, figs. 328, 329. 



The vertebral system of veins commences by a series of capil- 

 lary roots in the integuments and muscles, which unite to form 

 branches corresponding with the muscular and osseous segments 

 of the body : these f segmental ' veins consist, in the tail, of upper 

 or neural, and lower or haemal 

 branches; in the abdomen, of 

 upper and lateral branches ; in 

 the head, where the vertebral 

 segments are more modified, the 

 veins manifest a less -regular 



o 



and appreciable correspondence 

 with these segments. The ce- 

 phalic veins, returning the blood 

 from the cranial vertebras, their 

 appendages and surrounding 

 soft parts, from the brain, the 

 organs of special sense and their 

 orbits or proper cavities, from 

 the mouth and pharynx, and, 

 receiving also the whole or part 

 of the ' venae mitritiae ' from the 

 branchial arches, unite together 

 on each side to form a pair of 

 ( jugular ' veins, fig. 308, v* 9 each 

 of which usually dilates into a 

 larger simis, and again contracts 

 and resumes the vasiform cha- 

 racter, as it descends to beneath 

 the parapophyses of the atlas 

 and axis, in order to join the 

 corresponding trunk of the ver- 

 tebral veins of the body. 1 This 

 great trunk, called ' vena cardi- 

 nalis,' 2 fig. 308, v, commences 



at the base Of the tail-fin, Circulation of the Mood in the Fish. CCLXVL 



where it receives blood, and some affirm also lymph, from the pul- 

 sating sac there present in the Eel-tribe. The vein-trunk is 



1 In the Lamprey the corresponding jugular trunks lie above the aponeurotic repre- 

 sentatives of the vertebral parapophyses. 



2 'La veine cave' of Cuvier; but it is not homologous with either the ' inferior' or 

 * superior venae cavce ' of Man. 



VOL. I. 



H 



