ANATOMY OP THE CROCODILE. 413 



to the one purpose of slaughtering prey. The victim 

 that could not be destroyed by being kept under 

 water was killed by being thrown out of it. 



" In consequence of the manner in which the negro 

 butchers detached the heart and other viscera, we 

 lost the traces of the provision which exists in this 

 reptile for circulating, by a trilocular heart, pure ar- 

 terial blood in the anterior parts of the body, and 

 mixed venous and arterial blood in the hinder mem- 

 bers, by a junction of the pulmonary artery with the 

 aorta descendens, low down in the back. The dif- 

 ference of the two qualities of the blood in the cir- 

 culatory systems of the two extremities was, however, 

 very perceptible, by the absence of all red blood in 

 the hind limbs and tail, and by the presence of bril- 

 liant arterial blood in the fore parts and the head. 



" The stomach of the Crocodile bears considerable 

 resemblance to the gizzard of a bird. Several stones 

 swallowed to assist digestion, render the similarity 

 perhaps more obvious than even the form and struc- 

 ture. The Crocodile we were skinning and cutting 

 up had evidently prowled along the coast before he 

 had entered the pond in which he had been caught ; 

 for his stomach was filled with marine crabs half 

 digested ; and the stones found in it, if necessary on 

 ordinary occasions to triturate its food, were es- 

 sentially requisite now to crush the hard cases of 

 Crustacea. 



" The dilatations and contractions of the thorax 

 when sensitiveness was excited by the pain attendant 

 on the first removal of the skin, showed the degree in 

 which the ribs by their mobility assisted respiration. 



