ALIMENTARY CANAL OF REPTILES. 



433 



292 



§ 75. Alimentary canal of Reptiles. — The cavity containing, as 

 in Fishes, the alimentary 

 canal, with the kidneys and 

 principal organs of gene- 

 ration, also lodges in Rep- 

 tiles, fig. 292, the heart, a, 

 b, c, and lungs, h, i. In 

 most the whole cavity is 

 lined by the peritoneum, 

 which is reflected upon the 

 several viscera. In the 

 transverse section of the 

 cavity, fig. 293, the thick 

 line diagrammatically 

 shows the peritoneum re- 

 flected from the vertebral 

 centrum upon the aortal 

 and caval trunks, h, the 

 spleen, b, and stomach, a, 

 whence it is continued to 

 form the omental fold, e, c : 

 from the ventral surface 

 the peritoneum is reflected 

 at one small part upon the 

 remains of the umbilical 

 vein, forming the so-called 

 ' falciform,' g, and ' round,' 

 d, ligaments of the liver. 

 In the Crocodilia the peri- 

 toneum does not extend forward beyond the stomach and liver, 

 but is reflected upon the posterior (sacral) surface 

 of both organs, 1 circumscribing a smaller ' abdo- 

 minal' cavity, and including fewer viscera, than in 

 Mammals. 



In female Reptiles, the serous membrane of 

 the abdomen is continuous with the mucous mem- 

 brane of the oviducts ; the subhexagonal or poly- 

 gonal flattened cells of its epithelium giving place 

 to the ciliated epithelial cells at the margin of the 

 oviducal aperture. In both male and female 

 Chelonia, the peritoneum is continued, as an in- 

 fundibular canal, into the ' corpus cavernosum' 



Abdominal cavity and viscera, Draco volant, ccl. 



293 



Transverse section of 



the abdominal cavity, 



Lizar-d. ccxxxv. 



VOL. I. 



1 ccxxxvi. vol. ii. p. 336. 

 F F 



