48 



with in other large lakes of the neighbourhood, although these be 

 known to communicate with the former by subterraneous channels. 

 The specimens which have as yet reached either the public or private 

 collections are so few, that all the descriptions hitherto given by 

 Laurenti, Scopoli, Herman, Schneider, and Gmelin, have been found 

 equally defective and erroneous, especially as to the anatomical con- 

 struction, which, indeed, those able naturalists have scarcely had 

 opportunities of investigating. This defect probably gave rise to a 

 difference of opinion concerning the class to which this animal is to 

 be annumerated ; some considering it as a species arrived at its degree 

 of perfection, while others maintain that it is the larva of some kind 

 of lizard hitherto unknown. 



The principal object of this paper is to offer so circumstantial a 

 description of the different parts of this animal *as to enable physio- 

 logists to determine the point hitherto undecided. The specimen from 

 which this description was taken measured about thirteen inches in 

 length, and one inch in diameter ; the fore part of the head was flat 

 and narrow, somewhat resembling the bill of a duck : the upper lip 

 projected considerably beyond the lower one. No external traces of 

 nostrils, ears or eyes could be discovered. Of the latter, however, 

 some indications are thought to have been perceived on a living spe- 

 cimen. On each side of the occiput was an opening, like those of 

 fishes ; and over them certain branchial appendages, similar to those 

 in tadpoles and other larvse of amphibious animals ; whence probably 

 arose the difference of opinions concerning the nature of this animal. 

 From the description here given, we are to infer, that the construc- 

 tion of these parts, when carefully examined, differs materially from 

 those as well of fishes as of tadpoles or other larvae. 



The body is round, equally thick throughout between the fore and 

 hind feet : the fore feet are about one inch long, each having three 

 toes without nails, the hind feet about two lines shorter with only two 

 toes : behind the latter the body grows narrower, and terminates 

 in the tail, which is compressed on the sides, and ends nearly in a 

 point. The skin is coriaceous ; but looking at it with a magnifier, it 

 exhibits a number of minute glands underneath the epidermis, similar 

 to those in water-lizards, &c. Its colour when alive is a light red ; 

 but when kept a while in spirits, it becomes of a dusky brown. A 

 detailed account is also given of the muscular fibres under the skin. 



Upon opening the body by a longitudinal section, the whole ca- 

 vity was found almost filled by the liver, extending from the thorax 

 down to the pelvis, so as to cover the greatest part of the other 

 viscera. The heart consists of a single ventricle, and an auricle as 

 large as the ventricle. The situations, dimensions, and structure of 

 these, as well as of the stomach, intestines, gall-bladder, spleen, 

 kidneys, pancreas, &c., are minutely described : and as it was found 

 to have something particular in its formation, the author dwells 

 somewhat more at large on the air-bladder, or pneumatic apparatus, 

 which he met with in the thorax, immediately below the heart. This 

 he found to be a simple bag, without any cellular structure, as in the 



