464 MR. F. E. BEDDARD ON THE [Nov. 28, 



as is also often the case with the Lacertilia, are separated by the 

 dorsal mesentery. 



The afferent renals are, as is the case with Lizards, derived 

 from two sources : the caudal vein divides into t]:ie two veins of 

 Jacobson and there is also a system of vessels derived from the 

 hind limbs and from the parieties in that neighbourhood. I 

 traced the veins of Jacobson for some way into the substance of 

 the kidney. It appeared to me that they did not directly join 

 the anterior abdominal vein ; and in any case it seems clear that 

 instead of there being a branch superficial to the kidney which 

 joins the ischiadic afferent renal system as in other Lizards (for 

 instance, in Lacerta. as figured by Hochstetter *), there is at most 

 a branch which effects such a union running within the substance 

 of the kidney. I am inclined even to think that the union is 

 indirect. But in either case there is obviously an approach to 

 the condition observable in non-Boine Snakes, where the anterior 

 abdominal vein is independent of the caudal vein. It will be 

 noted, moreover, that the condition observable in the kidney- 

 region of Hatteria is quite remote from that to be noted in the 

 Varanidse and in the Crocodilia, where the ischiadic, or both 

 the ischiadic and caudal, veins are directly continuous with the 

 anterior abdominal vein or veins, and merely send branches to 

 the kidney. The afferent renal system of Hatteria is, as it were, 

 an exaggeration of the typical Lacertilian type. 



It is more particularly the anterior abdominal vein which 

 appears to me to show these Ophidian characteis, partly matched, 

 however, as I shall indicate later, in a legless Lizaixl, Pygopus 

 lepidojnis. In Lacertilia, at least as a rule, the conjoined anterior 

 abdominal and portal veins enter the left lobe of the liver at or 

 quite close to its posterior border. 



In Snakes, on the other hand, there is, at least in some cases, 

 a different arrangement. In Eryx, for instance t, the portal 

 runs along the side of the liver to its anterior end, giving off 

 branches at intervals to the liver-substance. In Hatteria also (see 

 text-fig. 60) this is precisely what hajapens. The anterior abdo- 

 minal vein, reinforced by the portal, runs in the membrane which 

 connects the stomach with the left lobe of the liver, giving off 

 branches at intervals to the liver-substance and receiving" at 

 intervals branches from the stomach. Towards the anterior end 

 of the liver the conjoined porto-abdoininal trunk finally disappears 

 in the liver. 



The details of the blanching described here in general terms 

 can be understood by a reference to the figure (text-fig. 60). 

 Pygopids t shows an intermediate state of affairs. The main 

 branch of the conjoined portal and anterior abdominal veins 

 enters the liver near to its posterior extremity, as in Lacertilia 



* Moi-pli. Jahrb. vol. xix. pi. xvi. fig. 12. 



t "iNotes upon the Anatomy of certain Snakes of the Family Boidsa," P. Z. S. 

 1904, vol. ii. p. 113. 

 X p. Z. S. 1904, vol. ii. p. 17. 



