240 ANOURA. RANAD^. 



rudiment of a thumb, and at the outer edge of 

 the ankle of the hind foot there is for the most 

 part a tubercle, which in some genera is expand- 

 ed into a large oval disk with free edges ; this 

 tubercle is analogous to one of the little bones 

 of the human ankle, and is not, as has been 

 supposed, the rudiment of a sixth toe. 



The motions of the Frogs are lively, and the 

 muscular power displayed by them very great, 

 particularly in swimming and leaping. " The 

 muscles of the abdomen," as Mr. Broderip ob- 

 serves, "are more developed than in the other 

 reptiles, offering, in this particular, some analogy 

 to the abdominal structure of the Mammifers. 

 But it is in the disposition of the muscles of the 

 thigh and legs, in the Frogs and other Anourous 

 Batrachians, that the greatest singularity is 

 manifested. These, whether taken conjointly 

 or singly, present the greatest analogy with the 

 muscular arrangement of the same parts in man. 

 We find the rounded, elongated, conical thigh, 

 the knee extending itself in the same direction 

 with the thigh-bone, and a well-fashioned calf to 

 the leg. It is impossible to watch the horizontal 

 motions of a frog in the water, as it is impelled 

 by these muscles and its webbed feet, without 

 being struck by the complete resemblance in this 

 portion of its frame to human conformation, 

 and the almost perfect identity of the movements 

 of its lower extremities with those of a man 

 making the same efforts in the same situation. 

 By the aid of these well-developed lower limbs, 

 and the prodigiaus power of their muscular and 

 bony levers, a Frog can raise itself in the air to 

 twenty times its own height, and traverse, at a 



