CHAPTER V. 



A DESCRIPTION OP THE LYMPHATIC SYSTEM IN ONE OF THE 

 ANIMALS CALLED AMPHIBIOUS, VIZ. THE TURTLE. 



THIS system. in a turtle, like that in birds, consists of the 

 lacteals, the lymphatics, and their common trunks, the thoracic 

 ducts. It agrees likewise with that in birds, in not having 

 any lymphatic glands either on the mesentery or near the tho- 

 racic ducts ; but differs from that in birds in not having any 

 glands upon the larger lymphatics of the neck ; at least I am 

 inclined to believe so, from not having seen any of these glands 

 in the dissection of one animal of this species in which I looked 

 for them. It likewise differs from that in birds in another cir- 

 cumstance, to be taken notice of hereafter. Whether it agrees 

 with the same system in birds, in the transparency and want 

 of colour in the chyle, I cannot take upon me to determine, as 

 I did not see any of that fluid in this subject. 1 



The following description I took from the animal, after I 

 had injected the larger branches of this system with a coloured 

 wax, and the smaller with quicksilver. To avoid my being 

 misunderstood, when I speak of the situation of the different 

 parts, I shall mention, once for all, that the description was 

 taken from the subject as it lay upon its back ; those parts 

 being called highest which were nearest the head, those lowest 

 which were nearest the tail, those posterior which were nearest 

 the back, and those anterior nearest the belly. 3 



The lacteals accompany the blood-vessels upon the mesentery, 

 running by their sides, and communicate frequently across 

 those vessels. Near the root of the mesentery they anasto- 

 mose, so as to form a network, from which several large 



1 In a crocodile, an animal of the same class, the chyle is white. 



2 The animal from which I took this description was pretty large, measuring from 

 the lower to the upper part of the shell two feet seven inches, and two feet two 

 inches from side to side. 



