BANDED RATTLE-SNAKE. 329 



tlie auricle being larger than the heart itself. It 

 had only one ventricle, the valves being small 

 and fleshy, and the inside of the ventricle distin- 

 guished by four or five cross furrows. 



A little below the heart lay the liver, which was 

 about an inch wide in the largest place, and seemed 

 divided on one side by the vena cava into two 

 lobes of unequal length ; that on the left side 

 being about ten inches, and that on the right a 

 foot long. Its colour was a brown red, and its 

 use, no doubt, the secreting of the gall, which was 

 contained in a bladder, seated at some distance 

 below it. 



The fat in this animal was very plentiful, and 

 the membrane to which it adhered seemed to be 

 the omentum, which encompassed all the parts 

 contained in the lower belly, and was joined to 

 both sides of the ribs, running from thence to the 

 rectum, and forming a bag which enveloped the 

 parts there, but was free, and not conjoined to- 

 M^ards the belly : there was no diaphragm or sepa- 

 ration between the heart and lungs and the abdo- 

 minal viscera. 



The kidneys, which lay towards the back, on 

 each side of the spine, were not very firmly con- 

 joined, and were about seven inches in length; 

 that on the right side somewhat exceeding that 

 of the left : each were about an inch in diameter, 

 and though forming one continued body, yet 

 plainly distinguishable into several smaller kid- 

 neys, to the number of fifteen ; all so curiously 

 contrived, with such an elegant compages of 



v. III. p. IT. - 22 



