ALIMENTARY CANAL OF REPTILES. 



441 



300 



ophio-morphous kinds of the latter. The transition from the 

 gullet to the stomach is scarcely indicated externally. On the 

 inner surface it is shown, in the Python, by the more vascular 

 and rugous character of the longitudinal folds continued into it 

 from the oesophagus, the interspaces of the folds being reticulate. 

 The stomach, which is straight, as in the Rattlesnake, fig. 300, <j, 

 contracts at first gradually, then quickly, to the 

 pylorus, whence a narrow canal, of about an inch 

 in length in a Python of ten feet long, 1 conducts 

 to the suddenly expanded intestine. In the 

 Proteus, Siren, and Amphiuma the stomach is 

 long, cylindrical, and nearly straight ; there is 

 no intervening canal between pylorus and in- 

 testine. The stomach is distinguished from the 

 oesophagus by the thickness of its coats, and by 

 the spongy and vascular character of the lining- 

 membrane. In the Siren and Triton, fig. 294, 

 the pyloric end bends a little to the right ; this 

 bend is more marked in Salamandra. In the 

 Frog, the stomach, fig. 305, «, c, is pyriform, 

 placed on the left side of the abdomen, with a 

 slight curve to the right side. In the Lizard the 

 stomach, fig. 301, a, is fusiform, with a similar 

 position : but, in curving to the right, it ad- 

 vances from behind forward. In the Flying 

 Lizard (Draco volans), fig. 303, f, and the 

 Iguana, the stomach is rather pyriform, but the 

 shape varies with the state of the contents. 



In the Chelonia the stomach so far accords 

 with the broad and flattened form of trunk that 

 it is placed more transversely, bending as it passes 

 from the left to the right side. In fig. 302 the 

 gradual passage from the oesophagus, t, to the 

 stomach, K, is shown in the fresh-water Tortoise, 

 Emys europcea, in which the stomach is cylin- 

 drical and elongated, curving behind, and in a 

 deep groove of the left lobe of the liver, i, to 

 the right, where the pyloric portion of the 

 stomach, k', becomes narrower and thicker in its 

 coats. The muscular fibres of the layer radiate from an 

 aponeurotic part on each side, at the chief bend. The mucous 



m 



Viscera, in fore part of 



the abdomen, of the 



Rattlesnake, ccl. 



1 xx. vol. i. p. 1 43, no. 504 A. 



