Dr. A. Giinther on the Tailless Batrachians. 71 



The posterior parts of the animal are very large and muscular. 

 Just in the centre is the anus, situated in the upper end of a deep 

 longitudinal farrow, which, formed by two thick cutaneous folds, ex- 

 tends along the lower part of the belly ; probably it serves for con- 

 ducting the products of generation. Each of the folds is in connexion 

 with a broad muscle, destined for removing them one from the other ; 

 along the middle of the bottom of this furrow is a raphe, as in the 

 perinseum of man. The extremities are short ; and the single mem- 

 bers are not conspicuous, on account of the wide and enveloping skin ; 

 the anterior ones are enveloped to the middle of the forearm. The 

 fingers are four, quite free, ending in a blunt tip without being di- 

 lated ; the thumb is the shortest, the second and fourth are nearly 

 of equal length, the third much longer. There are callosities on 

 the inner and outer side of the carpus. The hinder legs become 

 more conspicuous from the articulation of the knee; the lower 

 leg and tarsus are short ; but notwithstanding the bluntness 

 of the extremities, a free motion is allowed by the wide-folded 

 skin. The planta is very broad ; and the toes are joined by a web, 

 which, deeply notched between the toes, reaches the extreme pha- 

 lange as a narrow fold. The os cuneiforme forms a high, elongated, 

 elliptical prominence, not so hard and sharp as in PelobateSy the 

 integument of which may be separated from the bone together with 

 the skin, and exhibits a surface with transverse grooves, a circum- 

 stance which affords a firmer hold when in locomotion. Immediately 

 before this prominence is situated the rudiment of the first toe, mo- 

 dified into a perfectly similar and also striated but smaller promi- 

 nence. This must support locomotion, especially as its surface is 

 sometimes injured and lacerated. The four other toes end with 

 a small round knot, the second being the shortest, the fourth the 

 longest, the third intermediate between the second and fourth, the 

 fifth rather longer than the second. 



On the back, on the head, and round the snout, the skin is firmly 

 adherent, all other parts being enveloped by it as by a too wide sac. 

 It appears to be smooth on the back, but is pierced on all parts 

 with innumerable minute pores. On the head appear scattered very 

 small warts, becoming gradually more crowded towards the end of 

 the snout ; they are not glandular in structure, perhaps bearing 

 organs of feeling. The disk-like end of the snout is entirely smooth, 

 polished and soft, but of a firm structure. There are whitish pro- 

 minences on the neck, the belly, and on the under sides of the legs ; 

 they obtain, especially on the latter place, the circumference of fig- 

 seed, and are glands without ductus excretorii. There is externally 

 nothing of a parotis to be seen ; but by an incision is found a thick, 

 aggregate of glands, as above mentioned, situated above and behind 

 the shoulder-blade, and of the same circumference as the skull : the 

 ductus excretorii of the single^ glands are not different from those 

 scattered on the other parts. In the subcutaneous tissue a black 

 pigment is thickly deposited : the colour of the upper part is dark 

 bluish-olive, either uniform or with yellowish spots along the verte- 

 bral line, sometimes confluent into a streak ; spots of the same 



