Coe and Kunkel— California Limbless Lizard. 357 
on the side farthest from this opening, as in most lizards, The large 
intestine is cylindrical and without convolutions. It les in the 
middle line of the body and remains of about the same diameter 
throughout its length. Posteriorly it opens into the much narrower 
ventral cloacal chamber as described below. Instead of passing 
gradually into the cloaca, however, the posterior end of the large 
intestine is saclike and in ordinary states of contraction continues 
slightly farther back than the comparatively narrow opening into 
the cloaca. A pair of very shallow blind pockets are thus formed 
on the right and left sides of the anterior end of the ventral cloacal 
chamber. The epithelium of these blind pockets is sharply dis- 
tinguishable from that of the other portions of the large intestine 
because of the presence of masses of lymphoid cells forming well- 
marked lymphatic nodules. In other states of contraction, however, 
the pockets entirely disappear, the large intestine passing gradually 
into the cloaca. The masses of lymphoid cells thus lie at the pos- 
terior end of the large intestine. The cloacal chambers and their 
relation to the ducts opening therein are described in detail in the 
chapter on the urogenital organs. The posterior opening of the 
cloaca is in ordinary states of contraction a transverse, crescent- 
shaped slit, guarded by a definite series of scales, as described in 
the following chapter. 
Liver.—As is the case with the alimentary canal, the liver con- 
forms in shape to the slenderness of the body, consisting of a single 
very slender mass with only a very small secondary lobe (text-fig. 1). 
The main body of the organ is apparently made up of the portion 
which constitutes the right lobe in most lizards, the small secondary 
lobe referred to being the left lobe, which is either rudimentary or 
has its anterior portions completely fused with the right lobe. The 
right lobe extends from a short distance behind the heart nearly as 
far as the posterior end of the stomach. It is somewhat crescentic 
in cross section, the concavity lying closely appressed to the esopha- 
gus, which it covers ventrally and on the right side in its normal 
position. Sometimes both esophagus and posterior portion of lung 
are almost completely surrounded thereby. The average length of 
the right lobe is about 50™™ in adult specimens, being very nearly 
one third as long as the distance from tip of snout to anal aperture. 
Both anterior and posterior extremities are very narrow. ‘The 
epigastric vein enters the posterior end, while the vena cava inferior 
leaves the opposite extremity, and the portal vein enters the angle 
formed at the junction with the rudimentary left lobe. 
