52 ANATOMY OP A CHELONIAN. 



vature of the erected organ (owing to the greater elas- 

 ticity of the tissues upon its dorsal side), which causes 

 it to bend forward and ventrally. 



125. Raise the urinary bladder, and observe that it 

 ends in a narrow neck, which is attached to the front end 

 of the cloaca ; make a hole in it and pass a probe from 

 its cavity into the cloaca ; pass another probe into the 

 cloaca from the cut end of the rectum (107). 



126. Bend the penis forward and fix it ; wash the 

 mucus away from inside the cloaca, and find where 

 the probes have entered the latter. - That from the 

 bladder appears through an opening at the end of the 

 urethral groove ; the rectal opening is dorsal to this. 



127. Dorsal and a little to one side of the bladder, 

 opening on each side, are the large apertures of the 

 accessory bladders. 



128. Replace the penis, turn the bladder back, and 

 fix it in position. Wash out the abdominal cavity with 

 a stream of water, and, filling the carapace with clean 

 water, examine the reproductive glands. 



129. The testes, a pair of rounded yellow bodies, are 

 placed a short way in front of the pelvis. Each has on 

 it a darkly pigmented, convoluted mass, the epididymis, 

 which extends back beyond it. 



130. Turning the testes and epididymis toward the 

 middle line, seek a long tube thrown into curves and 

 ending anteriorly in a small dilatation placed dorsal to 



