130 



continued to the left lobe. The intestines occupy their own serous 

 cavity : but below the pubes a distinct serous cavity contains the 

 anterior part of the cloaca or genito-urinary reservoir. The perito- 

 neal or serous membrane does not invest the kidneys, but is reflected 

 over tlieir anterior (abdominal) surface. 



" The peritoneal canals were very easily made out. They opened 

 on each side of the base of the penis, by two orifices capable of ad- 

 mitting the point of a fine blow-pipe. In the Croc, acutiis Mr. Owen 

 found them to allow barely of the passage of an eye-probe; but in 

 the present animal, small as it was, they were far larger; still it 

 appeared to me that they could not serve the purpose suggested 

 by M. Geoffroy St. Hilaire. Can they be intended to allow of the 

 escape of any gaseous secretion, any aeriform fluid, which may fill 

 the abdominal serous cavity, and be expelled under certain circum- 

 stances, as, for instance, when the animal seeks the deep bed of the 

 lake or river? 



" The stomach was globular and flattened, with a glistening ten- 

 dinous patch on each side, as large as a shilling, or nearly so. The 

 entrance of the oesophagus and the pyloric appendix were close 

 together, the appendix being about as large as a good-sized horse- 

 bean : from this the duodenum, emerging, formed a double fold; that 

 is, a fold formed by two lengths of intestine put together, and bent 

 upon themselves, embracing within the outer line, as in Birds, the 

 pancreas, a long thin gland, one portion of which was continued a short 

 distance along the free portion of the intestine, where it became 

 more thick, and ended abruptly. Further to the right, but in close 

 contact with this duodenal fold, lay the spleen, a grey flattened 

 rounded cake ; it was touched by the lower edge of the right lobe of 

 the liver, and was totally surrounded hy peritoneum, which attached it 

 by a narrow riband or slip to the duodenum, below the entrance of 

 the biliary ducts : along this riband ran a large vein, going from 

 the spleen to the vena porta : a small artery was also visible. The 

 gall-bladder, of an oval shape, and 1 inch long, entered the duode- 

 num at the termination of the outer folded layer, just where it be- 

 gan to be free, bj' a duct half an inch in length. The pancreatic duct 

 I could not succeed in tracing, but it certainly did not enter with 

 the biliary. In the Croc, acutus it enters a quarter of an inch beyond 

 that duct. 



" It may be remarked that the stomach contained no pebbles or 

 stones, but merely a little mucus. In a specimen ot Croc, acutus 

 subsequently examined the stomach was distended with undigested 

 lumps of flesh, and a vast quantity of Indian corn, swallowed most 

 probably in lieu of pebbles: the grains were hard, and quite unal- 

 tered. 



" The liver consisted of two distinct masses or lobes, of a trian- 

 gular figure; and it was between them, but on the edge of the right, 

 that the gall-bladder was situated. 



" The duodenum was rather larger in circumference than the rest 



