1904.] 



ANATOMY OF THE LACERTILIA. 



469 



This septum, fui^thermore, lies well behind the artery and vein 

 supplying the fore limb. It cannot, therefore, be confused with 

 the transverse membrane found in this and other Lizards running 

 from the base of the heart and other parietes in front of the 

 vessels which supply the fore limb. 



This anterior transverse septum carries in the neighbourhood 

 of tlie liver the two epigastric veins, which differ in some particulars 

 from those of other Lizards. As is shown in the accompanying- 

 drawing (text-fig. 98), the two epigastric veins, right and left, join 



Text-fiff. 98. 



Epigastric vein of Tnpinambis nigrnpunctatus. 



a, median vessel formed bj' junction of two epigastric veins ; h, branch running 

 along gubernaciilum cordis to heart ; c, branch from liver to vena cava ; 

 d, epigastric trunk ; e, epigastric arterj^; e', its branch to heart ; f, vena cava ; 

 H, heart ; L, liver. 



to form a common trunk, which opens into the vena cava close to 

 its emergence from the liver. Exactly opposite to the point of 

 entrance of the conjoined epigastrics a small vein from the liver 

 enters the vena cava. This vein is of the same calibre as the epi- 

 gastric, and the two are exactly in the same straight line. I can- 

 not but think that what has happened here is that the conjoined 

 epigastrics have secondarily acquired an opening into the vena, 

 cava, and that they were originally, as in other Lizards, directly 

 connected with the hepatic portal system. Posteriorly, as in other 

 Lizards, the two epigastric veins reach the two halves of the 

 anterior abdominal. The heart of this lizard, as is generally but 

 not universally the case among Lizards, is tied down to the peri- 

 cardium by a gubernacvilum cordis. Along this run to the walls of 

 the heart a small vein, which is a branch of the two epigastric 

 veins just where they join, and an arterial branch from each of 

 the epigastric arteries which run down the body-wall in close 

 proximity to the epigastric veins. Another epigastric artery 

 accompanies the anterior abdominal vein. It is double in the 

 region of the liver ; but further back the two arteries fuse to form 

 one. 



The liver in this Lizai-d has only one gastro-hepatic vein, which 



31* 



