AND PEBITONEAL CANAi.S IN CHELONIA. 4-41 



and external to the urino-genital groove. No communication 

 could be discovered to exist between the corpora cavernosa, wliich 

 are very small in the large female. 



5th experiment. — A female of Batagur tlmrgi had the orifice 

 situated on a small papilla immediately external to the base of the 

 glans, on the inner margin of the so-called preputial fold or hood 

 of the clitoris; and no trace of communication was discernible 

 between the corpus cavernosum and the canal of the peritoneum. 



Qth experiment. — In a female o{ Cliitra indica the opening of 

 the peritoneal canal was a very minute orifice situated at the 

 bottom of a deep pit with puckered margins, external to the 

 base of the clitoris. The peritoneal canal had its inner walls 

 more or less coloured, near its distal end, with fine dark lines 

 of the same pigment as that of the clitoris itself, thus indicating 

 the continuity of the lining membrane with that of the external 

 surface. The canal was also partially filled near its end with a 

 grumous substance, but quite difierent from the coagulated blood 

 that filled the corpus cavernosum. 



Ith experiment. — In a female Emys trijuga from Burma, which 

 was rather shrunk from preservation in spirit, the injection 

 would not pass ; but when the canal was laid open nearly to its 

 extremity, no difficulty was experienced in passing a fine bristle, 

 which appeared in much the same position as in Geoemyda grandis. 



8th experiment. — A similar result was experienced in a female of 

 Testudo platynotus, Blyth. 



Qth experiment. — In a female oi JBatagur lineatus the injection 

 passed freely ; and the orifice occupied the same place as in 

 jB. thurgi, and there was no indication whatever of the existence of 

 an orifice between the peritoneal canals and the corpora cavernosa. 



IQth experiment. — Platysternum megacephalum and Cyclemys den- 

 tata were so hardened and shrivelled by spirit that no orifice for the 

 well-developed canals could be detected. 



I should have been more satisfied with these experiments had I 

 succeeded in passing the injection freely through tlie peritoneal 

 canals of all the species examined ; but I attribute my want of 

 success in these two instances chiefly to the circumstances that 

 the parts were hardened and contracted with spirit, and that the 

 orifices were very minute. I am not prepared, however, to go 

 the length of saying that there is invariably a communication 

 between the peritoneal canals and the cloaca in the males ; but 

 at the same time there can be no doubt that in the males of (Veo- 



