108 



COMPARATIVE ZOOLOGY. 



Fig. 72.— Diagram of a single Heart: d, 

 auricle; e, ventricle; c, veins leading to 

 auricle ; a, aorta, or main artery. 



no great advance in the apparatus of the lowest Verte- 

 brates over that of the highest Mollusks. The heart of 



Fishes, as in the Oyster, has 

 two cavities, but its position 

 is reversed. Instead of driv- 

 ing arterial blood over the 

 body, it receives the return- 

 ing, or venous, blood, and 

 sends it to the gills. Re- 

 collected from the gills, the 

 blood is passed into a large 

 artery, or aorta, along the 

 back, which distributes it by 

 a complex system of capil- 

 laries among the tissues. 

 These capillaries unite with 

 the ends of the veins which pass the blood into the auri- 

 cle 60 (Fig. 48). 



In Amphibians and in Reptiles generally (as Frogs, 

 Snakes, Lizards, and Turtles), the heart has three cavities 

 — two auricles and one ventricle. The venous blood from 

 the body is received into the right auricle, and the puri- 

 fied blood from the lungs into the left. Both throw their 

 contents into the ventricle, which pumps the mixed blood 

 in two directions — partly to the lungs, and partly around 

 the system. Circulation is, therefore, incomplete, since 

 the whole current does not pass through the lungs, and 

 three kinds of blood are found in the body — arterial, ve- 

 nous, and mixed. In many animals, however, arrange- 

 ments exist which nearly separate the venous from the 

 arterial blood. 



The ventricle of Reptiles is partially divided by a par- 

 tition. In the Crocodile, the division is complete, so that 

 there are really four cavities — two auricles, and two ven- 

 tricles. But both ventricles send off aortas which cross 



