VI 

 THE VASCULAR SYSTEM 



BLOOD-VASCULAR SYSTEM 



I. THE HEART 



I. Historical. 



One of the earliest investigators to attempt to describe the structure 

 of the heart of Salamandra is Fritsch (1869), but his work and figures 

 are unsatisfactory. He omits the sinus venosus entirely, and figures 

 the divisions of the truncus arteriosus wrongly. In 1873 Langer- 

 hans published a brief account of the inter-auricular septum which 

 he wrongly described as perforate. Nine years later (1882), Boas 

 published his classic work Uber den Conus Arteriosus und die Arterien- 

 bogen der AmphibieUy which included a general account of the heart as 

 a whole, in both larva and adult. His work is well known and forms 

 the basis of most text-book descriptions. Rose (i 890) gives a general 

 comparative account of the heart in vertebrates, including Salaman- 

 dra, but has few original observations to make. He agrees with 

 Langerhans that the auricular septum is perforate. Langer (1894) 

 made a thorough study of the structure and development of the 

 bulbus cordis and truncus arteriosus, and draws a comparison be- 

 tween these structures and those of fishes, particularly the Dipnoi. 

 Greil (1903) has also studied the development of the truncus arteri- 

 osus, of which he gives a good account. The rather considerable 

 gaps which thus existed in the available literature on the anatomy 

 of the heart of Salamandra have been filled recently, to a large extent, 

 by Zullich (1930). His account is detailed and illustrated by a 

 number of very good figures. Unfortunately he does not seem to 

 have investigated the venous trunks for himself, but has copied 

 Wiedersheim's erroneous figures. Nevertheless he gives a good 

 account of the systolic rhythm and discusses the separation of the 

 blood. 



As regards the physiological and functional aspects, the classic 

 work of Briicke (1852) may be mentioned. He saw the ductus 

 Botalli between the pulmonary and systemic arches, and realized that 

 it was perforate. He further undertook injection experiments to try 

 to find whether the venous blood was separated from the arterial, 

 and came to the conclusion that very little, if any, such separation 



