360 



REPTTLIA. 



distinction between them and the turtle. The tail of the female is 

 much shorter than that of the male, and they turn, or rather fold, it to 

 the right. 



The Land Tortoise from South America [Testudo tabulata, 

 Walbaum 1 ]. 



The cavity of the body of this animal is but one, containing the 

 whole viscera. It may be wholly called abdomen, there being no 

 division for respiration similar to the diaphragm; but in those that 

 have a division the heart is also enclosed in its proper membrane, 

 without making any more divisions. There is nothing similar to the 

 cavity called ' pelvis ;' for whatever passes through the bones composing 

 this part, fill the passage entirely. The cavity of the abdomen is one 

 large cavity within the shell, in which lie the heart, lungs, stomach, 

 intestines, liver, spleen, pancreas, kidneys, bladder, and internal parts 

 of generation. The peritoneum, which lines the fore and lateral parts 

 of the shell, is attached in many places to the lower edge of the liver, 

 and passes over it, attaching itself to its upper surface in several places, 

 as also to the pericardium, making as it were its lower surface, and 

 forming by these attachments large capsulae or cells on the upper surface 

 of the liver. But these attachments are not in all animals in whom 

 the peritoneum makes a kind of diaphragm. This is somewhat similar 

 to the crocodile ; but its attachments are not so uniform ; [for, in the 

 crocodile, it] makes a separation between the cavity of the abdomen 

 and that part which constitutes the heart, which might be called 

 •' thorax.' 



The oesophagus, when got below the liver, dilates into the stomach, 

 which immediately bends towards the right, having no projection 

 towards the left. Its small hollow curve is closely connected to a 

 branch of the vena portae, passing along the under surface of the liver 

 to the left, having a projection of the liver behind it, answering to the 

 lobulus Spigelii. 



The stomach is thick in its coats, and has an oblong glandular part 

 in its coats with orifices on its inner surface. As the stomach passes 

 to the right it becomes smaller, not appealing to terminate in anything 

 like a pylorus ; however, there is a regular termination 2 . The first 

 intestine then passes down the right side, connected closely to the 

 anterior surface of the lungs and posterior surface of the ascending part 



1 [The skeleton of this tortoise is No. 1044 : the skull is No. 1045, Osteol. Series.] 



2 [Hunt. Prep. Phys. Series, No. 512.] 



