212 The Alligator and Its Allies 
THE ARTERIAL SYSTEM 
The Abdominal Aorta and its Branches. ‘The 
right and left aortic arches, Fig. 61, Aod, Aos, 
arising from the heart in the manner already 
described, form a rather long loop and approach 
each other in the middorsal line. Here they are 
united by a short, wide connective in such a way 
that the left arch seems continued into the cceliac 
artery and the right into the dorsal aorta proper. 
Each arch, anterior to the connective, gives off two 
fairly large branches, oe, to the posterior region of 
the cesophagus. 
The celiac artery, Fig. 61, c, is the largest branch 
of the abdominal aortic system. After giving off a 
couple of small branches, oe, to the posterior region 
of the cesophagus, it gives off a large spleno-intesti- 
nal artery, si, to the spleen and small intestine. 
The cceliac then breaks up into three arteries 
of about the same size: the gastro-hepatico-intesti- 
nal, ghi, carrying blood to the stomach, liver, and 
small intestine; the pancreo-intestinal, pi, leading 
to the pancreas and small intestine; and the gastric, 
ga, to the greater part of the stomach. 
From the dorsal aorta proper, da, which, as has 
been said, seems to be the direct continuation of 
the right aortic arch, several arteries are given 
off; these will be described as they occur in an 
antero-posterior direction. 
At about the point of union of the two aortic 
