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Show 34 1 MR. F. E. REDDAKD OX THE [Feb. 10, each other. They (the artery to the fat-body, the inferior mesenteric, and the first intestinal) arise in the following order :- (1) anterior spermatic; (2, 3, 4) three arteries to vas deferens; (5) fat-body artery ; (6) first right renal ; (7) posterior spermatic; (8) inferior mesenteric; (9) second right renal; (10) artery to vas deferens; (11) first intestinal; (12) first left renal (with branch to vas deferens); (13) third right renal; (14) second left renal; (15) fourth right renal. The left kidney has in all 8 arteries and the right much the same, though I cannot be so p»recise. COLUBER MELAXOLEUCUS. Anterior Vertebral Artery.-This artery is more extensive in this species than it is in many Snakes. It runs up to the neck to within an inch of the head, where it becomes lost in the thickness of the parietes. It gives off a number of intercostal branches, which are exactly median in their entrance into the dorsal parietes. The nine anterior arteries of this series appear to me to be regularly intercostal and each to correspond to a vertebra. After this point the arrangement is not so regular. Between this point and the origin of the vertebral artery there were only 8 intercostals and 1 very minute one. It may be remarked that where the intercostals are regular in their arrangement they are to a large extent smaller than those arteries set at irregular intervals. Intercostal Arteries.-The right aorta before it joins the left gives off but a single intercostal, which perforates the body-wall to the left of the dorsal median line. The intercostals which arise after the junction of the two aorta? are not so numerous anteriorly as they become posteriorly ; and, furthermore, these anterior arteries perforate the body-wall to the left of the middle line. Only ten of these arteries arise from the aorta up to the posterior end of the stomach, and they all of them enter the parietes on the left side of the dorsal median line. From this point onwards there is an irregularity and alternation in the place of entrance of the intercostals. The 35 or so of them which arise from the posterior section of the aorta are obviously more crowded together than the anterior set. A few of them are strictly paired. Gastric Arteries.-The arteries supplying the stomach are apparently 11 in number, of which the first six are insignificant in size, and the ninth is the largest. They are all concerned with the feeding of two longitudinal trunks which run along the surface of the stomach, and have a markedly undulatory course with the loops closely approximated to allow, of course, of the distention of the stomach without injury to themselves. These arteries, which arise from the aorta, are given off in alternating positions, according to whether they debouch into the right or the left longitudinal trunks. The first of the |
