THE AMPHIBIOUS CARN1VORA. 47 



in the Amphibia it was held that a sluice-gate ex- 

 isted between the two, which was opened when they 

 were under water, so that no obstruction occurred 

 to the circulation. By this aperture, (which existed 

 in the heart, and was called the oval hole, foramen 

 ovale,) it was asserted that both circulations went 

 forward, and without any prejudice to life. It is 

 because this statement still maintains its ground in 

 some of our most popular works on natural history 

 that we have thought it right to notice it. Thus 

 the eloquent BufFon, " The Seals and Walrus alone 

 can live equally in air and in water, and conse- 

 quently they alone merit the appellation of Am- 

 phibious." And no wonder the Count made this 

 statement, because he only quoted the memoirs of 

 the most learned societies of the day, " As these 

 animals remain long in the water, and thus the 

 transmission of the blood cannot be performed with- 

 out respiration, they have the foramen ovale open, 

 and therefore do not require to respire."* In these 

 sentiments he in fact only re-echoed the opinions of 

 the Physiologists of his time.')' 



The hypothesis was in fact based on erroneous 

 statements, which passed current for facts. It is 

 true these Amphibious animals live long in the wa- 

 ter, but still they must regularly come to the sur- 

 face, and they breathe precisely after the manner of 



Hist, de 1'Acad. des Sciences, torn. i. p. 84. 



t Though this explanation is sufficieut apology for Buffon, yet 

 the same theory, founded on the same errors, should not have 

 appeared in Bingley's British Quadrupeds, 1829. 



