220 The Alligator and Its Allies 



'fe 



(in Fig. 62 it is drawn farther to the side than it 

 actually lies) for a short distance farther, it divides 

 into three branches: (i) a short twig, mg, that 

 goes to the musk gland on the side of the mandible 

 and to the skin of that region; (2) a large branch, 

 the mandibular, md, that enters the large foramen 

 on the mesial side of the mandible and extends in 

 the cavity of that bone throughout its entire 

 length; (3) the Ungual artery, V, which in turn 

 divides, some distance cephalad, into two branches, 

 one extending along the lateral region, the other 

 nearer the mid- ventral surface of the tongue. It is 

 seen, then, that the collateralis colli arteries supply 

 directly the lower side of the head — tongue, mandi- 

 ble, etc. — though they may also send blood through 

 the above-mentioned connectives to the brain 

 and dorsal regions of the skull. 



The primary carotid, capr, as was noted above, 

 makes a curve to the left after leaving the heart and 

 then passes back to the median plane, where it 

 may be seen lying against the ventral side of the 

 neck muscles and dorsal to the oesophagus ; in this 

 place it gives off a series of unpaired cervical 

 arteries. Fig. 62, ce, each of which almost imme- 

 diately divides into an anterior and a posterior 

 branch, that carry blood to the cervical vertebras. 

 At the base of the skull, in the region where it is 

 united by the first connective, x, with the collater- 

 alis colli, as described above, the primary carotid 

 divides into two similar branches, called by Bronn 



