1905.] VASCULAR SYSTEM OF CROCODILUS. 467 



spending vessel in Tiliqua *, which arises on the left side of the 

 vertebral column and joins the right parieto-hepatic. In the 

 Lacertilia generally the dorsal parieto-hepatic veins are on 

 the right side only ; and if there are such vessels on the left they 

 either join the right-hand vein before entering the liver, as in 

 Tiliqua, or, as in Iguana^ and Angttis t, supply the gastric and 

 oesophageal networks and thus reach the liver indirectly. It may 

 be said, therefore, so far as present knowledge allows the state- 

 ment, that the Crocodilia difler from the Lacei'tilia in having 

 a left as well as a right dorsal parieto-hepatic, entering the liver 

 independently into both right and left lobes. 



On the right-hand side of the body the single dorsal hepato- 

 parietal trunk is composed of three stout affluents, of which the 

 two posterior are joined by a cross anastomosis. The anterior 

 vessel is continued forwards superficially and joins, or nearly 

 joins, the right azygos. I may remark that on the left side the 

 gaps between the several superficially running sections of the 

 azygos are more pronounced. 



Finally, the venous system of the liver in Crocodilus acutus 

 receives another afliuent, which is not, as I believe, represented in 

 the Lacertilia. This is a vein which arises from the parietes on 

 the right side, in a position intermediate between the dorsal and 

 ventral parieto-hepatics. This single vein arises from a longi- 

 tudinally running trunk in the parietes which corresponds, as I 

 think, to the lateral abdominal vein ; it passes straight to the 

 liver, which it does not, however, enter independently, but in 

 common with the dorsal parieto-hepatic. 



The above-given facts are, as has been already mentioned, not 

 in entire accord with previous statements. 



Hochstetter observes § " Eine vena hepatica advehens vertebralis 

 [ = 7ny i-ight dorsal parieto-hepatic] wie bie Lacerta und anderen 

 nicht vorkommt." But his observation refers to Alligator lucius. 

 Jacquart i|, who previously studied the venous system of the 

 same species (" Caiman a museau de Brochet "), makes no 

 particular mention of the vessels which I describe here in 

 Crocodihts acutus. He refers to what is possibly the right dorsal 

 parieto-hepatic (figured in fig. 1, pi. iii. 20 d, of his memoir) 

 merely as " une petite veine qui contourne le bord tranchant du 

 lobe droit du foie " ; and the vein in question may be really a 

 branch of the ventral parieto-hepatic system. For the possibly 

 corresponding vein of the left side (figured by Jacquai-t in fig. 1, 

 pi. iii. 41, of his memoir) no special reference is made in the 

 text. 



Rathke^, however, under the name of "vena epigastrica 



* Beddard, " Coutributions to the Anatomy of the Lacertilia : Pt. I.," P. Z. S. 

 1904, vol. i. p. 445. 



t Id. ihid. p. 440. % Morph. JB. vol. xix. p. 473. 



§ Morph. JB. xix. p. 478. || Ann. Sci. Nat. (4) ix. 1858, p. 129 &c. 



'I' ' Uutersuchungeu iiber die Entwickelmig und der Korperbau der Krokodile' 

 (Braunschweig, 1866), p. 256. The same name is also applied to the abdominal veins ; 

 but, I presume, in error for " externse." 



