484 MR. F. E. BEDDARD ON THE [NoV. 28, 



Between the liver and the stomach runs a forward extension of 

 the portal vein, which dies away anteriorly but nearly reaches the 

 forward extremity of the liver. At first the dorsal parieto- 

 hepatic vessels, where the right lobe of the liver is prolonged 

 beyond the gall-bladdei', open directly into the intra-hepatic 

 venous system. But further forward, where the two lobes of the 

 liver come into continuity and the two dorsal hepatic ligaments 

 fuse, the parieto-hepatic portal veins open into (or at least very 

 close to) the forward extension of the portal vein already referred 

 to. It is only in this region that gastro-hepatic vessels occur. 

 The left gastro-hepatic ligament carries no gastro-hepatic vessels, 

 that I could see, in that part where it is free from the right 

 ligament. The vessels, in fact, are first visible about 40 mm. from 

 the anterior end of the liver. They open into the longitudinal 

 portal vessel like the dorsal parieto-hepatic veins. 



It is important to notice the likeness which the arrangement 

 of these veins in Amphishcena bears to the similar arrangement 

 of the same veins in Snakes on the one hand and in Hatteria on 

 the other. In Lacertilia, as a rule, the gastro-hepatic veins 

 bringing blood from the stomach and oesophagus to the liver enter 

 the latter organ separately, or at most one or two blend together 

 before opening into the blood-sinuses of the liver. In Hatteria, 

 as I have already pointed out *, there is a collecting- vein, which 

 is a prolongation forward of the portal vein, that is the conjoined 

 portal and anterior abdominal, which runs in the gasti-o -hepatic 

 ligament on the left side of the body and receives on the one hand 

 veins from the stomach, while on the other side it gives off" veins 

 to the liver. There is, however, in Hatteria, no further resem- 

 blance to the conditions which obtain in AmjyMshcena. In Snakes 

 there is the further likeness in that, while there is the same 

 forward prolongation of the portal vein forwards between the 

 liver and the stomach, this vein not only receives branches from 

 the stomach which it transmits to the liver from the opposite 

 side, but it is also in connection with the venous system of the 

 body-wall by means of the dorsal parieto-hepatic veins, which 

 thus come, as in Amphishcena, into close relations with the gastro- 

 hepatic veins. 



The important point of likeness between all three types is, as 

 it appears to me, the extension forwards of the portal up to or 

 nearly up to the anterior extremity of the liver. The close 

 association in Snakes and in A'^njihishcena of the dorsal parieto- 

 hepatic vessels with branches from the stomach to the liver seems to 

 me to be dependent merely upon the narrow form of the body and 

 of the liver, and the consequent necessity of packing everything 

 in a narrow space. As it is so markedly the rule for the portal to 

 enter the liver at its hinder border in the Lacertilia, these two 

 divergences from that normal condition cannot but attract atten- 

 tion, especially as they show a likeness to the admittedly nearly 



* Above, p. 464. 



