ON THE ALLIGATOR 01- XOUTH AMERICA. 217 



vier, in the tenth voUime of the Jhinales du Museum men- 

 tions his name, and says that he Iiad dissected thirty or forty 

 alhgators. The work of this author 1 have not been able to 

 procnre ; and 1 tliink it is not to he obtained in tliis country. 

 Strongly impressed with the remarks of M. Correa de Serra, 

 I had relinquished the idea of giving |)ublicity to my remarks, 

 believing that the subject jiad been treated accurately by 

 able anatomists ; but reflecting that this traveller wrote in 

 1806 or 1807, — that in the lii'gne Animal published iii 

 1817, at least ten years after, M. Cuvier descril)es the circu- 

 lation in the crocodiles, as similar to that in the cheloniens 

 or turtles, — and that the result of my dissections is far from 

 coinciding with that description, I concluded that an error 

 must still exist in regard to that important point of anatomy 

 and physiology. 



I now therefore lay before the American Philosopliical 

 Society my notes, illustrated by several drawings of the heart, 

 and have them to judge of the correctness of my observa- 

 tions, 



I thought proper to add the diawing of the alligator, 

 which I have taken from the recent subject, because in the 

 new Dictionmiirc (V Histoire Mdurelle I lind that no correct 

 representation of this animal has yet been made. 



The circulation being the most important point, I shall 

 begin with the description of the heart, and shall fust give 

 the descri[)tions and opinions of M. Cuvier. 



In the cheloniens or turtles, it appears that the heart is 

 composed of two auricles and one ventricle, sometimes 

 partly divided into two cells, which always communicate. 

 It results from this organisation, that the blood relmning 

 from the different parts of the body, is partly propelled 

 through the aorta ; and that a portion of the blood biought 

 to the heart by the pulmonary veins, flows again by the pul- 

 monary artery into the lungs. M, ('uvier thinks that the 

 circulation is the same in the Snuriens, which order includes 

 the genus Lncorta of Liniueus, to which the alligator be- 

 longs. In his Regnc Animal, M. Cuvier merely expresses 



