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Nachdruck verboten. 



Respiration of Desmogiiatlius. 



By Anne Ide Bakrows, M. A., Assistant in Zoology, Smith College. 



With 2 Figures. 



The discovery of American lungless Salamanders by H. H. Wilder 

 in 1893^), and of European lungless species later by Camerano -), 

 together with further notes on this subject by Lönnberg^), very 

 naturally awakened the question, what organ or organs have in these 

 animals, destitute of lungs, assumed the respiratory function ? As a 

 matter of course, the skiu, which assists in aeration of blood in all 

 Amphibians, was first thought of in this connection. Camerano, 

 however, maintained that the skin plays a comparatively small part 

 in the respiration of these lungless forms and advanced the theory 

 of an almost exclusive "bucco-pharyngeal" respiration. The discovery 

 in 1897 by Maurer^) of blood vessels, in the case of certain lunged 

 Amphibians, extending into the pharyngeal epithelium itself, led others 

 to look for a like condition in lungless salamanders. 



Bethge '") very soon after this published the result of his in- 

 vestigations, showing a similar nearness to the surface of pharyngeal 

 capillaries in Spelerpes fuscus, a lungless form. Bethge's con- 

 clusions, after a comparative study of lunged and lungless Urodeles, 

 were contrary to those of Camerano in respect to the respiratory 

 value of the skin. Bethge believed the skin to play equally as im- 



1 ) H. H. Wilder, Lungenlose Salamandriden. Anat. Anz., Bd. 9, 

 1893. — Lungless Salamanders. Ibid., Bd. 12, 1896. 



2) L. Camerano, Ricerche anatomo - fisiologiche intorno ai Sala- 

 mandridi normalmente apneumoni. Torino 1894. — Nuove ricerche 

 intorno ai Salamandridi normalmente apneumoni, e intorno alia respi- 

 razione negli Anfibi Urodeli. Torino 1896. 



3) E. LöNNBEEG, Notes on tailed Batrachians without Lungs. Zool. 

 Anz., Bd 19. 



4) F. Maurer, Blutgefäße im Epithel. Morphol. Jahrb., Bd. 25. 



5) E. Bethge, Das Blutgefäßsystem von Salamandra maculata, 

 Triton taeniatus und Spelerpes fuscus mit Betrachtungen über den Ort 

 der Atmung beim lungenlosen Spelerpes fuscus. Zeitschr. f. wiss. Zool., 

 Bd. 63. 



