294 M. Nicolucci on the Anatomy of the Triton aquaticus. 



The vena cava posterior collects the branches of the dorsal 

 skin, the spinal branches of the ovary and the oviducts in the 

 females, of the testicles and deferential canals in the males, 

 and of the adipose bodies, and running by side of the liver 

 receives there the hepatic vein ; thence discharges itself into 

 the single auricle of the heart. The cava superior is formed 

 of the jugular veins which carry back all the blood of the 

 head, from the subclavian which bring back the nutritive 

 liquid from the upper limbs, and from the pulmonary veins. 



Leipsig, 1834, pp. 172, 178). But none of these has unfolded this question 

 with so much accuracy as Delle Chiaje. 



We shall not now repeat what the above-mentioned anatomists have said 

 upon the venous system of Jacobson, — a discussion on which we shall enter 

 in our Monograph, — but shall state that the observations of Delle Chiaje have 

 already been recorded in his ' Notomia Comparata' (Naples, 1836, ii. 104 

 — 114. pi. 53. f. 1. Q q K B, in the Rana escitlenta, 3 H 45 v 8 for the 

 Coluber matrix) , in the ' Ricerche anatomico-fisiologiche sul Proteo serpen- 

 tino (Naples, 1840, inserted in the ' Antologia di Sc. Nat. di Piria e Scacchi' 

 for March 1841), and more particularly in the ' Monografia del Sistemacir- 

 colatorio sanguigno degli animali rettili,' presented with 16 plates imperial 

 4to to the R. Acad, of Sciences, and mentioned in the Annual Discourse, 

 1838, of the Secretary Cav. Monticelli, and in our translation of Tiedemann's 

 'General and Comparative Anatomy ' (Nap. 1840, p. 142). We ought lastly 

 to notice that Delle Chiaje two years ago undertook for us the injection of 

 the entire Jacobonisan system (which he appropriately denominates the uro- 

 entero-hepatic) in an eft, and that the description of it traced by us in the 

 salamander was taken from an injection, which at our request he was so 

 good as to make for us, thus enabling ourselves to repeat it, as we often 

 have done, with every kind of facility. 



With regard to the office of the kidneys in reptiles and fishes, the opinions 

 of Jacobson appear probable enough that they assist in the function of the 

 haematosis, although Bojanus (Oken's ' Isis,' 1 bd. 7 hft. p. 873) and Cams 

 (Lehrb. d. vergleich. Zoost. ii. Leipsig, 1834, p. 700) maintain that all the 

 blood must be carried directly into the liver. This function of the kidneys 

 was expressed by Jacobson (De peculiari systemate venoso, &c. Hafniae,1821) 

 in the following terms : " This venous system is charged with carrying into 

 the kidneys, or into the kidneys and liver, the venous blood coming from 

 the hinder and middle part of the body, making it subserve the functions of 

 the secretions of those organs." And this for a double reason, both because 

 the lungs, or at least the branchiae, in reptiles and fishes, do not present to the 

 air so ample a surface as in the higher animals, to the vascular ramifications 

 which carry the blood there into contact with the aerial fluid ; and also be- 

 cause the venous blood, mixing in the heart with the arterial blood returned 

 from the pulmonary veins, this is conveyed there in a state the most fitted 

 for the wants of nutrition ; and this clearly takes place partly in the kidneys 

 and partly in the liver, and partly also, it may be said, in the skin, where the 

 blood undergoes a modification in its proper elements, and from being venous 

 and useless for nutrition becomes arterial and nutritive. 



It appears, then, that subsequent to Delle Chiaje, who was the first to give 

 its topographical description and delineation, nothing new has been added 

 to the anatomical knowledge of the Jacobsonian system ; nor, since Jacob- 

 son, any new idea respecting its physiological interpretation. 



