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Show 10 MR. F. E. BEDDARD ON THE [May 3, forwards beyond the funnel of the oviduct along the membrane which supports the oviduct, and which ends anteriorly in a transverse ligament tying the anterior border of each liver-lobe to the parietes *. The vein on each side passes along this ligament and enters the liver-lobe, forming thus a part of the hepatic portal system. I have not seen a description of a similar state of affairs in any other lizard, and I have not myself observed anything of the kind. These vessels may take the place of the dorsal parieto-hepatic trunk or trunks, which, as Hochstetter correctly notes, are apparently absent in Chamceleon. Physiologically they would appear to be equivalent, since they convey blood from the dorsal parietes. Epigastric Veins.-These veins were properly injected only in one out of the four specimens which I have been able to examine. The principal vein of the series, as in Tiliqua, is the median epigastric. But the two lateral epigastrics are not absent, though of diminished importance as compared with their condition in Iguana and in Varanus. They arise from the anterior abdominal of each side behind the fat-body, and run along the body-wall dorsally of the fat-body on each side. They are small vessels, and seem to end in branches of the much more important median epigastric. The latter vessel arises from the anterior abdominal just at the anterior end of the fat-body, to which it gives off a branch ; whether there is a branch to the other (the left) fat-body, I do not know. The epigastric passes forwards near to the middle line and to the right of the anterior abdominal as far as the point where the anterior abdominal receives the portal vein. At this point it opens into the anterior abdominal; the main trunk, however, diminished in calibre, still continues its forward course, and seems to be connected with the ventral parietal affluents of the liver, though I am unable to make an accurate statement as to the mode of its connection. It gives off in its course a good many branches, which seem to anastomose with similar branches of the anterior abdominal. The anterior abdominal vein of each side is, like that of Varanus (as made known by Hochstetter f), a direct continuation of the vein from the hind leg of its own side. Each receives a branch from the kidney and dorsal parietes, which has been already referred to. A peculiarity of the Chamseleon, as compared with at least some Lacertilia X, is that the two anterior abdominal roots unite to form the single median unpaired trunk before they reach, and receive all the six branches from, the paired fat-bodies. The anterior abdominal vein pursues a median course between the two closely approximated fat-bodies ; and here several more or less regularly arranged branches from each fat-body reach the unpaired region of the anterior abdominal. * " On some Points in the Anatomy of Tvpinambis teguexin," P. Z. S. 1904, vol. i. p. 465. f Loc. cit. p. 467. 1 Beddard, " On the Venous System in certain Lizards," P. Z. S. 1904, vol. i. p. 436. |