480 MR. F. E, BEDDARD ON THE [ Nov. 28, 
have been published by the Society”, attempted to fill in some of 
the lacune in our knowledge of an undoubtedly interesting genus 
of Lacertilia, the systematic position of which within the order 
cannot certainly at present be regarded as conclusively decided +. 
Mesenteries and Veins of the Liver.—The hepatic ligaments are 
quite typically Lacertilian, though presenting apparent differences 
from those of other Lacertilia, which are due simply to the snake- 
like form of Amphisbena and the correspondingly snake-like 
form of the liver. In my example of Amphisbena brasiliana, 
measuring 15 inches in total length, the liver is 107 mm. or nearly 
43 inches. The smaller left lobe, which extends neither so far 
forward nor so far backward as the right lobet, is only 73 mm. 
long. It may be noticed in passing that the liver shows several 
rather obliquely placed transverse fissures, a state of affairs which 
is known to exist in burrowing, and also in marine, snakes and 
in the burrowing Cecilians. The transverse lobation of the liver 
is not, however, a very marked phenomenon in this Lizard and 
might easily be, as it has been by some at any rate §, overlooked. 
The wmbilical ligament is, as in other Lizards, attached along 
the whole length of the liver from beginning to end. 1t does 
not, however, end with the liver, but is prolonged further, in fact 
to the very end of the abdominal cavity. This fact has been 
noted by Butler ||, whose remarks, in so far as they bear upon the 
matter under consideration, are as follows :—‘‘ In many Lizards 
these fat-bodies, pushing the peritoneum before them, bulge into 
the body-cavity; and, lying on the course of the large vessel, 
ventral to the.... bladder ....and the alimentary canal, into 
the ventral ligament of which they in some forms (Amphisbeenide) 
obviously extend,” &e. Posteriorly, however, in the present species 
the umbilical ligament is not attached to the gut. It leaves the 
liver for the stomach at the gall-bladder and ceases to be attached 
to the stomach on a level with the posterior extremity of the right 
lobe of the liver. The ligament is single throughout. 
The liver is attached dorsally by membranes which find their 
homologues in other Lacertilia and are indeed but little altered 
from the arrangements found generally. There are two of these 
membranes. The left-hand one attaches the left lobe of the liver 
to the stomach, and the right-hand membrane is the ‘‘ Hohlvene- 
gekrose” of Hochstetter, which attaches the vena cava to the 
dorsal parietes posteriorly and is continued on to the gonad, and 
which anteriorly has somewhat varying relations among the 
Lacertilia to the stomach and the parietes. In Amphisbena 
this mesentery does not reach the dorsal body-wall independently 
* P.Z.S. 1904, 1905. 
+ For a réswmé of opinion, see Fiirbringer, “ Beitrag z. Systematik und Genealogie 
der Reptilien,” Jen. Zeitschr. xxxiv. 1900, p. 616 
{ it thus differs from A. cinerea as figured by v. Bedriaga, Arch. Naturg. p. 481 
1884, pl. iv. fig. 2. 
§ H.g. by Cuvier, ‘Lecons d’ Anat. Comp.’ ed. 2, vol. iv. part 11. (1835). 
|| “On the Relations of the Fat-Bodies of the Sauropsida,” P. Z. S. 1889, 
p. 603. 
