24 
DR. H. GADOW ON THE CLOACA AND ON THE 
microphyes (one of the Elephantine Tortoises) each canal was continued as a round 
tube inside and along the walls of the groove of the penis and ended blindly in its 
glans; when injected, or blown up from the peritoneal end, they admitted easily my 
fifth finger. Side branches or openings towards the outside, through the penis, did 
not exist, nor was it possible to force any fluid or air into the corpora cavernosa, 
although the specimen was fresh, This agrees with Fritsch’s account of a male 
Testudo elephantopus, and with Mayer’s males of Testudo grceca and of Chelone 
midas. 
In a large and likewise fresh female Chelys matamata the canals extended along and 
in the ventral cloacal wall to open near the glans of the very rudimentary clitoris; 
they admitted a crow’s quill throughout their length. The preparation is now in the 
Cambridge Museum. 
A female specimen of Testudo grceca (Cambridge collection) likewise shows a bristle 
passed through the canal. In the males I found the abdominal opening very narrow, 
whilst the canals in the penis are wide and terminate blindly in the glans. This 
agrees with Mayer’s male specimens, and with Lataste’s male Testudo nemoralis, 
who, however, came to the conclusion that the canals never opened externally. 
Regarding the females, my observations completely agree with Anderson’s experi¬ 
ments made on females of Trionyx, Chitra, Batagur, Emys. 
To sum up, the peritoneal canals in female Chelonians open into the vestibulum 
cloacae on or near the base of the clitoris. In the males they extend, without having 
communication with the cavities of the corpora cavernosa, and without ramifications, 
through the penis, and either terminate blindly in the glans ( Testudo elephantopus, 
T. microphyes, T. grceca, T. nemoralis, Chelone midas), or they open into the cloaca 
through a small orifice “ situated at the base of the glans and close to the inside of 
the genito-urinal groove.” Anderson (Gecemyda, Emys, Trionyx).* 
Probably all the Chelcnia possessed open peritoneal canals. Considering the small 
size and the position of the clitoris, it is not astonishing that the canals remain more 
superficial'and retain their openings, whilst they are completely surrounded by the 
much larger male organ, and that their terminal orifices sometimes become closed. 
It is, we trust, not too hasty a generalisation to say now that the canals are closed 
in the males of the exclusively terrestrial and marine species (Chersidte and 
Cheloniidse), but that they are open in all females and in the amphibiotic and fresh¬ 
water Chelonians. 
The function of these canals has always been a puzzle. That they have a function 
is more than probable. I observed in a female Chelys a condition similar to that 
mentioned by Anderson iu other species : “ The peritoneal canals have their inner 
walls more or less coloured near their distal ends with fine dark lines of the same 
* Hoffmann says that according to Anderson the canals open outwardly also in the male of Testudo 
platynotus, which of course would be a rather serious exception to the other Testudines, hut Anderson 
never mentions a male Testudo. 
