| OCR Text |
Show 486 MR. G. "W. BUTLER O N T H E [June 14, reproductive glands and their ducts. From this it is not surprising to find that it terminates anteriorly in front of the reproductive organs, the body-cavity of either side being obliterated over a longer or shorter area. § IV. (ii.). The Unpaired " Gastric " Peritoneal Space of the Left Side. Between the hinder end of the right liver-lobe and the anterior end of the right reproductive gland the main1 right half of the peritoneal cavity is unrepresented in the male ; and in the female it is only represented (as described above) by a narrow peritoneal funnel or tube which sometimes extends but little in advance of the ovary. On the other hand, on the left side there is, with few exceptions, a distinct peritoneal space to be made out in the pyloric region. Retzius [(1) p. 89, and (2) p. 515], describing Python bivittatus, notices both this and the space which will be later referred to [§ IV. (iv.)] as the omental one. To find this gastric space in any Snake, we, after the preliminary easing away of the body-wall described above (§ IV. (0)), mark the point at the end of the stomach where, about opposite the hind end of the gall-bladder, it is often slightly bent (just where its thick-walled part ends). Then, carefully lifting up and cutting through the membranous tissue that wraps round the left and ventral sides of the posterior end of the stomach, we shall in nearly all cases (see § III. and § V.) find a distinct serous space, which, in the region described, wraps round the stomach on its ventral and left sides (the " blind sac " of Retzius); when, as sometimes happens, this is continued forwards by a narrow canal (" left serous canal" of Retzius), this latter, as a rule, lies more ventrally than laterally to the stomach itself. This gastric sac was, among the forms I examined, best developed in a specimen of Ccelopeltis lacertina, where it extended from a point 1 \ inches behind the gall-bladder forwards, so as to slightly overlap the left liver-lobe. It is, however, here, as apparently in all Snakes, divided off from the peritoneal sac that surrounds that liver-lobe. It is also well developed in some specimens of Zamenis gemonensis (a common Italian Snake) and in the various types of Pythonidse examined (viz. Eryx, Enygrus, Python). It was also distinct in Compsosoma and Lamprophis; and in fact I ascertained its presence in all the species examined, with the exception of a few marked (c) on the list in § III., and it not improbably occurs in some of these also. However, it is developed to a very different degree in different species and in different individuals of the same species. Thus it will very likely not be found in many specimens of Tropidonotus natrix, while it would appear (Elaphis, Zamenis) that it may be larger in the male than in the female. 1 There is, however, in many cases, a more or less marked " omental " siwe traceable (cf.% IV.). paCC |
