CHAPTER VI 
THE UROGENITAL ORGANS 
IGURE 54 represents the urogenital apparatus 
of a thirty-inch female specimen of Alligator 
mississippiensis. Figure 55 shows the cor- 
responding organs of a male A lucius; reproduced 
from Bronn. 
The urogenital organs in the young animal are so 
similar in the two sexes that one might easily be 
mistaken for the other; of course in sexually ma- 
ture animals, especially during the breeding season, 
this is not the case. 
The kidneys, Fig. 54, k, Fig. 55, a, are flattened, 
lobulated organs lying against the dorsal body wall. 
The large anterior lobe of each kidney is pointed atits 
anterior end and lies at some little distance from its 
fellow; itis partially divided into secondary lobes and 
is traversed on its ventral surface by branching blood- 
vessels. Its antero-medial border is sometimes par- 
tially concealed, in a ventral view, by the elongated 
gonad of that side. Caudad to the main lobe of 
the kidney is a smaller, usually distinct, lobe in con- 
tact mesially with its fellow of the opposite side. 
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