1904.] ANATOMY OP THE LACERTILIA. 447 



stei'num. The vein reappears just below the skin and jnst super- 

 ficial to the musculature, passing forwards along the ventral 

 middle line to the neck. Before terminating on the neck the vein 

 gives off a branch on each side, which runs down the neck among 

 the muscles a little anteriorly to the origin of the fore limb. I 

 traced the vein on one side to a point close to the aui-icles, and 

 I think that it communicates with the jugular vein. Since the 

 vessel showed no diminution of calibre up to the point where I 

 lost it (owing to the failure of the injection), I do not think that 

 it can ai'ise from a capillary netwoi'k on — foi- example — the heart. 

 As to the course of the blood in this vessel I have of covirse no 

 positive facts to offer ; I believe, however, that the blood must 

 flow towards the liver — that the vessel is, in fact, part of the 

 portal S3^stem, chiefly for the reasons that if the vein be regarded 

 as an hepatic vein its course would seem to be unnecessarily 

 erratic. A connection between the head-end of the body and the 

 hepatic or other portal systems is not common in reptiles ; but I 

 shall presently have to i-efer to analogous cases in the Monitor 

 (see below, p. 449). 



Gastro-hepatic veins.— Thin lizard has a well-developed system 

 of gastro-hepatic vessels, by which I understand those veins which 

 communicate dii-ectly between the stomach and the liver and do 

 not reach the latter indirectly via the common portal vein. I find 

 either three or four of these trunks, which are all of them situated 

 aiiterioiiy, and are supported by one or other of the two (I'ight 

 and left) gastro-hepatic ligaments. Anteriorly the two membranes 

 in question become joined, and this unpaired region bears two of 

 the veins ; the next vein runs in the i-ight and the last in the 

 left sheet of the mesentery. 



Varanus griseus. 



Of this lizard I have dissected two examples, both of tb.em 

 males. The circulatoiy system has been desciibed by Corti* ; 

 and Hochstetter t has added some details of value, which I have 

 confirmed. 



The original of the anterior abdominal vein is correctly described 

 by Hochstetter, who figures the vessels J. I may remark that 

 each anterior abdominal receives before its union with its fellow 

 only two branches fi'om the fat-body, which contrasts with the 

 larger number characteristic of Igtiana. 



Epigastric veins. — The right and left epigastric veins arise 

 from the outer, sciatic, veins of the legs immediately behind the last 

 of the bra,nches which come from the fat- bodies. Each is closely 

 accompanied by an epigastric artery, the course of which is not 

 dealt with here. During their coui'se along the ventral paiietes 

 the veins receive many branches fi-om tlie parietes, and they 

 finally end in the liver independently of each other. It is note- 



* 'De Systemate vasorum P^jamniosanvi j^risei,' 1853. I am not acquainted with 

 this work. t Movph. Jahrb. xix jx -lti4. 



J Jmc. cU. pi. xvi. fig. 17. 



