A more detailed account of the condition of the vascular system in the Cyclostomata and Fishes will now be given. THE VENOUS SYSTEM.—The Cyclostomata,[359] as might be expected, exhibit a more primitive condition of the venous system {316}in certain features than is the case in any other group. The precaudal portion of the subintestinal vein retains much of its original importance and runs in the rudimentary intestinal spiral valve as far as the liver, where it becomes the hepatic portal vein. From the liver the blood is collected into a _single_ hepatic vein, and by it is conveyed to the sinus venosus. The caudal section of the subintestinal vein, now known as the caudal vein, bifurcates near the anus, and its two branches become directly continuous with the right and left posterior cardinals, without forming a renal portal system. In their forward course to the heart the posterior cardinals are situated directly beneath the notochord, and after receiving the blood from the kidneys and gonads, and from the numerous pairs of segmental veins of the body-wall, join the corresponding anterior cardinal veins, and form on each side a short transverse Cuvierian duct which opens into the sinus venosus. There is also a pair of inferior jugular veins which, however, unite opposite the fifth pair of gill-sacs to form a single trunk; this vessel is continued backwards, externally to the medio-ventral cartilage of the branchial basket, and finally opens directly into the sinus venosus. In Elasmobranchs (e.g. _Mustelus antarcticus_)[360] the caudal vein (Fig. 186) lies in the haemal canal of the caudal portion of the vertebral column. On reaching the kidneys the vein divides into two renal portal veins, which, however, are not directly continuous with the posterior cardinal veins as in the Cyclostomata, but, on the contrary, after receiving the posterior segmental and oviducal veins, become continuous with the capillaries of the kidneys.