CERTAIN ABNORMALITIES IN THE COMMON FROG. 85 



servation, I cut sections of a portion of the gland and found 

 that neighbouring follicles had developed some ova, others 

 spermatozoa, both in a normal manner. 



In this connection a complete study of certain organs which 

 occur in toads would doubtless yield most interesting results. 

 These organs were first found by Jacobson ^in Bufo cinereus, 

 iu males, and he regarded them as rudimentary ovaries. 



Von Wittich 2 describes and figures these organs, and 

 upholds the view that they are rudimentary ovaries, and 

 affbrd evidence of the primitively hermaphrodite nature of the 

 generative glands in Amphibia. 



They are also described by Bidder,^ who regards them as 

 accessory male glands serving to carry on the first stages of 

 the development of the spermatozoa. 



Spengel* has more recently described these organs, and 

 states that in addition to being found in males, where they 

 persist, such organs exist at the anterior extremity of the 

 ovary in young females in all Bufones, rendering it — he argues 

 — in the last degree unlikely that the organ is a rudimentary 

 ovary. Spengel cites, in confirmation of his view, a specimen 

 of B. cinereus which came under his notice, where on each 

 side was a well-developed testis, and above this a true 

 ovary, while between the ovary and the corpus adiposum 

 was placed this organ which he terms " Bidder's organ." 

 Spengel also mentions an abnormal specimen of Pelobates 

 fuscus, which resembles very closely my specimen of liana 

 temporaria. On the one side was a normal testis, while on 

 the other the anterior half of the gland was a testis and 



' • Danske Videnskaternes Selskat Naturvidenskabelige og Matbematibke 

 Afbandlingar,' 1828, p. xlii. 



* ' Beitrage zur Morphologischea und Histologischen Entwickelung der 

 Ham und Geschlechtswerkzeuge der nackten Ampbibien," * Z. f. w. Zool.,' 

 Bd. iv, p. 125. 



f, 3 ' Vergl. Anat. u. Histol. Untersucbungen iiber die Mamilicben Gescblecbts- 

 und Harnwerkzeuge der nackten Ampbibieo,' Dorpat, 1846, p. 27, &c. 



* "Das Urogenital-sjstem der Ampbibien," 'Art. aus dein. Zool. Zoot. 

 lust, in Wurzburg,' Bd. iii, 1876-77. 



