ON THE CLASSIFICATIONS OF THE AMPHIBIA. 265 



and habit, that we are justified in deducing or inferring the 

 one from the other. This is legitimate induction, but it has 

 been pushed far beyond its legitimate limits in the hands of 

 some anatomists and zoologists. 



(To be continued.) 



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

 Esq., M.A., F.L.S., C.P.S., &C. 1 



In my short paper " On the Snake-like Proteus,"" contained in 

 the first volume of the new series of the ' Magazine of Natu- 

 ral History,' I assumed the permanency of the gills, — from a 

 long acquaintance with that remarkable fact, — as the princi- 

 ple upon which the Proteus ought to be characterised, not 

 only in conformity with its natural organization, but likewise 

 in respect to its position in the animal kingdom, as so nearly 

 approximating to some kinds of fishes. 



Whilst examining Mr. Jenyns's excellent ' Manual of Bri- 

 tish Vertebrate Animals/ I found, at p. 299, that he arranged 

 our native species in the class Amphibia, and in an order 

 termed " Caducibranchia," from the gills being "deciduous ;" 

 it very naturally occurred to me to form for the Proteus ano- 

 ther order, which I named Manentibranchia, signifying the 

 gills remaining permanent ; and this I decided on, without 

 investigating under what orders or groups zoologists (with 

 the exception of Linnaeus and Cuvier) had distributed the 

 genera of amphibious animals. 



Having lately had an opportunity of paying some attention 

 to this class of animals, I shall venture, after giving an out- 

 line of the different arrangements that have been adopted by 

 several of the modern naturalists, to add one — partly indeed 

 derived from that of Latreille — which I hope, notwithstand- 

 ing our imperfect knowledge of the rarer American kinds, may 

 not altogether be disregarded by those zoologists who are 

 more conversant in the highly interesting subject of Amphi- 

 biology. 



To begin with Linnaeus. He arranged such of these ani- 

 mals (except the genus Ccccilia) as were then known, in his 

 last (the 12th) edition of the ' Systema IS aturae,' 1766, under the 

 first order, Reptiles, of the third class, — Amphibia; and which 

 were all comprised in only two genera, — Rana and Lacerta. 



Lauren ti, about the same time (1768), publishing his ' Sy- 



1 Communicated by the Author. Read at the Linnean Society, Feb. 6, 1838. 



