544 ANATOMY OF VERTEBRATES. 



aorta, and more abundantly by vessels sent to them from the 

 plexus vcnosus of the neural canal ; both kind of vessels ramify 

 in their substance, forming a fine capillary network upon the 

 capsules of the niultinucleate cells. The blood is returned from 

 the right adrenal directly to the postcaval vein, and from the left 

 adrenal to the corresponding emulgent vein. In Lacerta ocellata, 

 each adrenal is about one sixth of an inch in length, and one- 

 eighth of an inch in breadth, adherent to the emulgent vein, 

 where it forms the postcaval : upon which the right and usually 

 the larger adrenal sometimes lies. In the male Lizard it is 

 situated between the vein and the vas deferens : in the female, 

 between the vein and the ovary. The adrenals are lobulated, 

 and well supplied with blood ; their minute structure is essentially 

 the same as that in Ophidia and Batrachia. 



Hunter left preparations of two glandular bodies, with a con- 

 volute exterior surface, and a homogenous parenchyme, similarly 

 disposed, which he called ( supra-renal glands ' of a Tortoise ; J 

 and, in his ' Anatomy of a Land-Tortoise,' he writes, ( The 

 capsula renalis is large and flat, situated above the kidneys : it 

 looks like a pancreas, being conglomerated, but, when cut into, 

 appears to be all of the same substance.' 2 Bojaiius regarded two 

 long bodies, situated at the inner margin of the kidneys of Emys 

 europcea as the adrenals ; but, according to Ecker, the adrenals 

 of Testudo grceca lie on the abdominal (sternal) surface of the 

 kidney, imbedded in its substance, extending almost the whole 

 length of the gland, as in the Frog. 3 Under the microscope they 

 appeared as aggregates of yellow granules, each inclosed by a 

 proper capsule, and containing nuclei, oil-globules, and molecular 

 particles. 



Hunter describes the adrenals in the Crocodile as ' two oblong 



& 



bodies, darker on their exterior surface than internally, and in 

 some places little yellow bodies are to be seen upon them, as in 

 the kidney ; and on the outer edge is a very small yellow thread 

 passing down, which is continued along the broad ligament its 

 whole length towards the anus.' 4 This might be the remnant of 

 the duct of the primordial kidney. 



1 xx. vol. iii. p. 130, preps, nos. 1277, 1278. 2 ccxxxvr. vol. ii. p. 364. 



8 CCLXXXVII. 4 ccxxxvi. vol. ii. p. 340. 



