Zoological Society. 61 



found it necessary to withdraw from the excitement of active 

 life. He settled down at Richmond, and once more gave him- 

 self up to Ovid_, Virgil, and his old friends Paulus Slanutius, 

 Justus Lipsius, Ochinus, Fracastorius, &c. Increasing years 

 brought increasing feebleness ; and the severe weather of No- 

 vember last brought on an attack of bronchitis, of which he 

 died suddenly on the 1st of December, in the seventy-eighth 

 year of his age. — J. J. B. 



PROCEEDINGS OF LEARNED SOCIETIES. 



ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



June 22, 1858.— Dr. Gray, F.R.S., V.P., in the Chair. 

 On the Systematic Arrangement of the Tailless Ba- 



TRACHIANS AND THE STRUCTURE OF RhINOPHRYNUS DOR- 



SALis. By Dr. Albert GIInther. 



The organ which in the tailless Batrachians offers the most re- 

 markable character, and which is most closely connected with their 

 mode of life, is the tongue, Wagler has already separated from 

 the other Ranid(S a group without tongue, Aglossce, comprising all 

 other Ranidce under the name Phaneroglossce, which have a tongue 

 entirely adherent in front. This division was also afterwards accepted 

 by Bibron, who changed the name of Aglossce into that of Phryno- 

 glossce. The separation of the first group appears the more justifi- 

 able, as Miiller came to the same result by another principle. I 

 now add a third form, hitherto very imperfectly known, and the 

 tongue of which is not yet described. Rhinophrynus dor satis is the 

 only Batrachian which has a tongue free in front, with the anterior 

 tip capable of being stretched out of the mouth. The details are as 

 follows : — The base of the cavity of the mouth is occupied by the 

 tongue. The front part of this organ is rather narrow and cylindrical, 

 with an obtuse rounded tip, of a similar shape to that of one of the 

 small Rodentia ; the front part is quite free ; somewhat anterior to the 

 middle of its length it is fixed to the base of the mouth by a frenu- 

 lum ; behind this it becomes gradually broader, and is fixed on each 

 side by a muscular pad. The hinder edge is rounded, not notched, 

 entirely adherent, and exhibiting only a transverse shghtly prominent 

 swelling. The tongue is entirely soft, with a velvet-like surface, 

 covered with papill(B Jiliformes, which gradually become longer 

 behind ; and whereas the front tip of the tongue is again capable 

 of being stretched out of the mouth, both halves of the musculus 

 genioglossus are well developed, forming the very base of the cavitv 

 of the mouth. 



I propose to divide the Batrachia anura into three groups : — 



