GENERATIVE ORGANS. 



713 



the ova are conveyed from the ovarian nidus to the orifice of the oviduct. 

 It is obvious that they must first break loose into the abdominal cavity, 

 as we found them to do in the Lamprey and the Eel, and that at length, 

 having made their way into the neighbourhood of the pericardium, they 

 are seized by the patulous extremity of the Fallopian tube, and thus con- 



Fig. 352. 



veyed out of the body. As the ova 

 make their transit through the ovi- 

 duct they become imbedded in a 

 tenacious albuminous secretion, and 

 are at length lodged in a dilated 

 portion of the tube, to which the 

 name of uterus has been very im- 

 properly given, preparatory to their 

 expulsion through the cloaca. After 

 the eggs have been discharged into 

 the surrounding water, the albu- 

 minous mass in which they are 

 imbedded swells considerably ; and 

 when the young tadpoles are 

 hatched, this material no doubt 

 serves to nourish them during the 

 earlier period of their existence. 



(2018.) In the Newt (Triton) 

 impregnation takes place internally, 

 although the male is still without 

 any rudiment of an intromittent 

 apparatus, so that we are compelled 

 to believe that in the case of these 

 Amphibia the simple ejection of 

 the male fluid into the water in the 

 vicinity of the female is sufficient 

 to ensure its admission to the ova 

 while still in the oviduct. An im- 

 provement is likewise visible in the 

 construction of the internal viscera subservient to generation ; and a 

 vas deferens, quite distinct from the ureter, makes its appearance. In 

 the male Salamander (Triton cristatus) the testis during the breeding- 

 season consists of two pyriform masses, from which the seminal ducts 

 (fig. 352, c c) are derived. These soon unite to form a single convoluted 

 tube (cl), through which the semen is conveyed into the cloaca. The 

 kidneys (n) and their excretory ducts (i i) are here placed consider- 

 ably further back ; but the ureters terminate in the cloaca at the same 

 point (m) as the vasa deferentia. Two other large glands (o o) are 

 apparently connected with the generative functions, and their excretory 

 ducts likewise open into the cloacal outlet. 



Generative organs of male Salamander. 



