THE ACCESSORY BLADDERS OF THE 

 TESTUDINATA. 



FRANK \V. riCKEL. 



Historical.— Uoxt than a century ago Von Perrault (i4) 

 mentioned the occurrence of two coecal sacs, emptying into 

 the cloaca in turtles. Later these sacs were drawn and 

 described by Bojanus (4) in Emjs curopaca Schweigg. {Emys 

 orbicularis Boulenger), and subsequently an account of them 

 was published by Lesueur (10). According to the latter author 

 these sacs, or bladders, which are very large, exceedmg when 

 expanded the bladder proper, are present in neither land nor 

 sea turtles They are also wanting, according to Lesueur, m 

 the Trionychidae. He found them in twelve American species 

 of Emydidae, and in two species of Chelydridae, namely, in 

 Chelvdra serpentina and Chelydra lacertina Schweigg. {Chelydra 

 laeertina Boulenger). Bibron and Dumeril (3) and Schweigger, 

 as well as Strauch, found them in Chelydra lacertina Schweigg. 

 Lesueur(io)called these bladders "lumbarvesselsor auxiliaries 



Duvernoy (7) believed that they are only in part comparable 

 with the " glandulae anales " of carnivorous mammals. He says : 

 <^This comparison is permissible on account of the shape and 

 position, and perhaps in accordance with the plan of general 

 composition of the whole organism, but is not admissible when 

 a comparison of the details of their structure and their function 

 is made • they are by no means organs with glandular walls 

 forming a reservoir for secreted fluid." According to Duver- 

 noy these bladders, to which he gives the name <' accessory 

 vessels," are very large, and the expansion of either of them 

 equals that of the bladder alone. Their form is oval or cylin- 

 drical, and their position such that they must become com- 

 pressed by the muscles of the lower belly, and may a so be 

 compressed by the posterior extremities, when the anima with- 

 draws these into its carapace. M. Lesueur (10) found that 



