302 CLASS REPTILIA. 



succeeds an intestine, thick and short, into the interior of 

 which its extremity is prolonged like a circular valvule, but 

 with no appendage to mark the place of their division. 



The parietes of the thicker intestine are always more 

 strong and thick than those of the smaller. It proceeds in a 

 serpentine course as far as the rectum, but without turning 

 aside, and preserves, pretty nearly, the same diameter, 

 through its whole extent. 



The mucous tunic forms, in the narrow intestine, broad 

 longitudinal leaves, folded like ruffles. It is marked with 

 rugosities, and constitutes thick and irregular folds in the 

 rectum, whose extremity is dilated into a rounded cloaca. 



In the majority of the species, the anus is only a trans- 

 verse cleft, placed under the origin of the tail, and which 

 conducts into the cloaca, a kind of common reservoir of the 

 fluids, or the products of generation, of urine, and of solid 

 excrements. This orifice has two lips, one of which moves 

 against the other, and closes the aperture, like a covercle 

 with hinges. 



The liver, long and cylindrical, has but a single lobe. Its 

 general colour is yellowish. In many species the common 

 trunk of the hepatic canals is usually separated from the 

 cystic, and is not inserted with this last in the intestinal canal. 



The gall-bladder is absolutely separated from the liver. 

 It is situated beside the stomachy in the neighbourhood of the 

 pylorus, and a little behind it. Its figure is, in general, 

 ovoid. The gall which it contains is, usually, very green, 

 very acrid, and extremely bitter. 



The pancreas is very irregular, and situated at the right 

 of the origin of the intestinal canal. The spleen adheres to 

 the commencement of this canal, and is elongated. 



The peritoneum appears to be confounded with the pleura, 

 even in virtue of the union of the cavities of the thorax and 

 the abdomen, in consequence of the want of diaphragm. 



