220 The Alligator and Its Allies 
(in Fig. 62 it is drawn farther to the side than it 
actually lies) for a short distance farther, it divides 
into three branches: (1) a short twig, mg, that 
goes to the musk gland on the side of the mandible 
and to the skin of that region; (2) a large branch, 
the mandibular, md, that enters the large foramen 
on the mesial side of the mandible and extends in 
the cavity of that bone throughout its entire 
length; (3) the lingual artery, 1', which in turn 
divides, some distance cephalad, into two branches, 
one extending along the lateral region, the other 
nearer the mid-ventral surface of the tongue. It is 
seen, then, that the collateralis colli arteries supply 
directly the lower side of the head—tongue, mandi- 
ble, etc.—though they may also send blood through 
the above-mentioned connectives to the brain 
and dorsal regions of the skull. 
The primary carotid, capr, as was noted above, 
makes a curve to the left after leaving the heart and 
then passes back to the median plane, where it 
may be seen lying against the ventral side of the 
neck muscles and dorsal to the cesophagus; in this 
place it gives off a series of unpaired cervical 
arteries, Fig. 62, ce, each of which almost imme- 
diately divides into an anterior and a posterior 
branch, that carry blood to the cervical vertebre. 
At the base of the skull, in the region where it is 
united by the first connective, x, with the collater- 
alis colli, as described above, the primary carotid 
divides into two similar branches, called by Bronn 
