TESTUDO TABULATA. 361 



of the colon, and near the lower part of the abdomen becomes a loose 

 intestine, making one pretty large sweep round, then coming round 

 towards the right again, as also towards the caecum. The csecum 1 , lies 

 in a sulcus in the lower edge of the right lobe of the liver. It makes a 

 turn or twist upon itself downwards, and terminates in the colon, which 

 is continued a little further down, and makes a turn up before the 

 duodenum, and is closely attached to it ; thence it passes to the left 

 side, behind the stomach, becoming pretty large ; next it makes a quick 

 turn towards the right, across what would be called the spine in other 

 animals ; then it turns back to the middle of the body and bends down 

 into the pelvis, forming the rectum. 



Where the colon makes its first turn across the spine it is firmly 

 attached to the posterior parts, which are principally composed of the 

 lungs : its other turns are also attached thereto. The rectum is large, 

 and is a common part to the intestine, the bladder, and the parts of 

 generation ; and, as the pelvis is within the cavity of the shell, the 

 rectum [cloaca] is obliged to be elongated under the tail so as to become 

 a projecting part : it is lined with a thin cuticle. The valvulae con- 

 niventes are longitudinal 2 , as in the crocodile ; there are none in the 

 colon; the great arch of the stomach has a membrane attaching it to 

 the posterior parts, which might be called a tight epiploon, for the 

 attachment of this membrane to the stomach is the same with the 

 epiploon in other animals, only it is not loose, but is a stretched mem- 

 brane. I could not find any passage leading to it behind the vessels of 

 the liver, as in many other animals, for there is hardly any distance 

 betwixt the liver and pylorus in this animal. 



The liver reaches from side to side of the abdomen ; its thickest 

 portion is principally in the right ; however, the middle is the thinnest 

 portion; and where the pericardium' lies there is no liver, but only a 

 membranous attachment of the right and left lobes of the liver ; so the 

 apex of the heart lies, as it were, in a sulcus of the liver. It is very 

 irregular, as if made up of different parts. In some, where the peritoneum 

 is fixed to the liver, it would seem to make the division between the 

 cavity for the heart and the abdomen below. The liver is large for 

 the size of the animal. The gall-bladder lies in a deep sulcus, on the 

 concave surface of the right lobe. The liver in this animal, as in other 

 Amphibia, and in the Bird, has a great many veins from the anterior 

 part of the body entering its substance, especially two that come from 

 the anterior parts of the pelvis, and pass along the inner surface of the 

 shell of the abdomen at the attachment of the peritoneum, similar to 



i [Hunt. Prep. Phys. Series. No. 671.] ." [lb. No. 660.] 



