﻿VISCERA 8i 



The suprarenal bodies are narrow and elongate, placed 

 on the renal veins or on the vena cava inferior. 



The ureters leave the hind ends of the kidneys, and 

 open through the side-walls of the cloaca on a papilla 

 which in the males contains also the opening of the 

 vas deferens. There is no urinary bladder. The 

 genital organs will be mentioned in the next chapter. 

 The liver is usually long and narrow, measuring one- 

 fifth to one-fourth the length of the body, on the right 

 side of the alimentary canal, commencing just behind 

 the heart or farther back. It is exceptionally short 

 in Chersydrus. It is sometimes divided by transverse 

 furrows. Its posterior extremity is bilobate, and the 

 left lobe usually extends beyond the right, although 

 the reverse has been observed in some snakes. The 

 gall-bladder, which may be absent, is remarkable for 

 its distance from the liver. The pancreas, elongate 

 but comparatively small, is located near the spleen, on 

 the left side of the alimentary canal, at a considerable 

 distance from the liver. 



The peritoneal part of the body-cavity is subdivided 

 into a number of spaces or coelomic compartments 

 enclosed in serous capsules — viz., a posterior or intes- 

 tino-genital, a gastric on the left side, and a pair 

 round the liver, corresponding to its two lobes. 



Fat-bodies are much developed, either in the form 

 of small separate lobes, or as a continuous, much 

 folded band, on each side of the body. 



