M'Murtrie's Translation of the Regtie Animal. 553 



ciencies of this kind are glaringly conspicuous, when they come 

 from medical translators. In stating the circulation in Batra- 

 chian animals, at page 76, he states that the branchial blood 

 IS brought back into an arterial trunk, from whence » arise 

 most of the arteries which nourish the body, and even those 

 which conduct the blood to be oxygenated in the lungs." Dr 

 M'Murtrie, it seems, has to learn that when branchial blood 

 IS transmitted, it has already been oxygenated, and need not be 

 carried to the lungs to be oxygenated over again. If he had 

 known any thing of the subject he was translating, it would not 

 be necessary to inform him, that batrachians, when young, have 

 both branchia and lungs, and that the blood, when it has become 

 branchial, wants no further oxygenation. When the branchia 

 are obliterated, the lungs alone perform this function. Why he 

 has so mistated his author, it is impossible to conceive. Cuvier 

 IS very clear; he says, speaking of the arterial trunk, " c'est de ce 

 tronc, ou immediatement des veines qui le forment, que naissent 

 la plus grande partie des arteres qui nourrissent le corps et 

 meme celles qui conduisent le sang pour respirer daus le poumon " 

 The first remark which the translator indulges in, as American 

 editor, upon the Batrachians, is equally unfortunate. At page 



?\I'^T.''S"'"'^' ^''"'"^ ""^ ^"'''^'''' "^^'^^ ^^^ following remark " 

 L" iN. B. This last species {Rana clamitans. Baud.) is the young 

 of the hdlfrog, Am. Ed."] They are totally distinct, differing, 

 not only in size and markings, but in their tympani and palatine 

 teeth. One so well acquainted with the little ones among the frogs, 

 must be supposed very familiar with the big ones among the 

 toads, and therefore, at page 83, our translator appends to one 

 ot Cuvier's notes, the following gratuitous remark. (Add Bufo 

 Americanus. L. C. Am. Ed.) We never heard of this B. Ameri- 

 canus before, and should be glad to know when or where Le 

 Conte has described it. We imagine Dr. M'Murtrie has no in- 

 formation to give us on that head, and that it is a generous con- 

 tribution from his own stock of information, intended to compen- 

 sate to the great toad family for his strange suppression of an 

 American toad, very accurately described by Mr. Say, the Btifo 



TinT'r,^ ^^'"J'' ^'^P^^^*'^" ^« I^«^ky Mountains, vol. ii. page 

 190.) The habits, locality, and characters of this animal are 

 there fully detailed. We had thought that Dr. M'Murtrie in 

 assuming the character of annotator upon the labours of natu- 

 VOL. I — 70 



