THE MAGAZINE 



OF 



NATURAL HISTORY. 



AUGUST, 1839. 



Art. I. — On the Classifications of the Amphibia. By John Hogg, 

 Esq., M.A., F.L.S., C.P.S., &c. 



{Continued from page 274.) 



It will be here noticed that I have chosen the modes of re- 

 spiration, and the respiratory organs, for the principal cha- 

 racters by which to divide the whole class into two leading 

 sections, or sub-classes. The absence, the decay, and the per- 

 manency of gills, materially influencing the respiratory system, 

 and so affording the most natural properties for the subdivi- 

 sion of the animals into their respective orders, present a clas- 

 sification, at once simple and uniform. And I cannot but 

 consider, that these organs furnish the truest characters for 

 more accurately distinguishing the several groups, not only in 

 accordance with the most singular and curious phenomena, 

 which have hitherto been found to arise from their physiolo- 

 gical conformation, but also in direct explanation of their 

 common name, 'Amphibia,'' and in farther elucidation of their 

 supposed amphibiousness. 



Some observations explanatory of the sub-classes, orders, 

 and families adopted by me, may not now be deemed super- 

 fluous. 



The first sub-class comprises the monopneumenous amphi- 

 bians, or those animals in which the function of respiration is 



Voi, III.— No. 32. n. s. 2 q 



