144 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OF [1819. 



NOTES ON THE AMPHIUMA. 

 BY HENRY C. CHAPMAN, M.D. 



On looking over general works, like those of Owen, Huxlej 7 , 

 Milne Edwards, Gegenbaur, Stannins, etc., in reference to the 

 anatomy of the Perrenibranchiate Batrachia, I find that the Am- 

 phiuma is only referred to in a general way, and, with the excep- 

 tion of Cuvier's memoir, 1 I do not know of any special paper 

 having been published on the structure of that animal. Having 

 dissected the Amphiuma that recently died at the Zoological Gar- 

 den, I thought that it might not be uninteresting to notice the 

 disposition of its internal organs. The specimen was a male, and 

 measured twenty-nine inches. As regards the alimentary canal, 

 the only difference that I noticed in my specimen, as compared 

 with that described by Cuvier, was that the rectum did not ex- 

 hibit the constrictions seen in the figure of his specimen. In other 

 respects, such as the longitudinal folds of the stomach, the open- 

 ings into the cloaca, etc., they were alike. The liver and spleen 

 were large, and there was a distinct pancreas. The lungs were 

 well developed, and attained a length of thirteen inches, which 

 may serve to explain the fact of the animal being able to remain 

 under water such a length of time. The heart differs from that 

 of the siren in that the auricles are not fringed to the same ex- 

 tent. The ventricle is large and muscular, and is separated from 

 the bulbus arteriosus bj T a short and narrow constriction. The 

 bulbus bifurcates each branch at once, then subdivides into the 

 pulmonary artery and a branchial vessel. The latter winds around 

 the pharynx, and, meeting its fellow of the opposite side, the two 

 form the aorta. From the branchial vessel are given off cephalic 

 and hyoid branches. The blood is returned from the lung to the 

 heart by a pulmonary vein. As compared with Siredon, Meno- 

 branchus, Siren, Proteus, and even with the closely allied Meno- 

 poma, Amphiuma exhibits a very simple and concentrated type of 

 circulation. I did not notice anything peculiar about the branches 

 given off by the aorta, which I examined through its length; the 

 vessels supplying the Wolffian bodies were large. The bladder 



1 Cuvier Memoires du Musee. 2 op. cit., pi. 1, fig. 2, tome 14th. 



