1905.] 



ANATOMY OF THE LEATHERY TURTLE. 



317 



The gall-bladder lies half embedded in the deep svirface of the 

 right lobe, just distal to the attachment of the duodenal mesentery. 

 A very short coiumon bile-duct, formed by the union of the cystic 

 duct with an hepatic duct coming from the left lobe, enters the 

 wall of the intestine slightly to the left of the gall-bladder. 



The duct does not, however, open into the intestine here, but 

 runs on, as a dilated channel 15 mm. in diametei', for another 

 9 cm., away from the pylorus, and there opens by a long slit-like 

 mouth bordered by foliate lips. A similar ariangement of the 

 bile-duct has been briefly described by Temminck*. 



The Mesenteries. 



When the body-cavity is opened along the venti-al surface, the 

 coils of the small intestine are seen lying to the right and the 

 oesophagus, stomach, and first part of the intestine to the left. 

 The coils of the intestine are suspended by a sheet of mesentery 

 in the ordinary way, but the complex on the left is apparently 

 enclosed almost completely within a loose peritoneal bag (text- 

 fig. 70, pt.s.). The relations of this bag to the vai-ious parts of 

 the alimentary canal in connection with it were not determined 

 in every particulai-, but so far as seen were as follows : — 



Text-fiff. 71. 



fkdr 



Bermoclielys coriacea, diagrammatic transverse section through the mid-vegion 

 of the peritoneal sac. 



Letters as in text-fig. 70. 



The descending cesophagus when it enters the abdominal cavity 

 is surrounded by a loosely fitting layer of splanchnic peritoneum. 

 Alon^ the dorsal and ventral surfaces of the esophagus this 

 laver''<^ives off a pair of mesenteric sheets that form by then- 

 union ^'a closed sac (text-fig. 71, pt.s.). In the dorsal wall 

 of the sac are suspended the coils of the tubular stomach, and 

 in its ventral wall the first segment of the small intestine. Free, 

 within its cavity, lie the ascending arm of the oesophagus and 

 the ^lobular region of the stomach suspended by a mesentery 

 given off from "the left surface of the descenduig cesophagus. 



* Temminck : Fauna Japonica (Reptilia), 1838, p. 6. 



