202 Dr. II. F. E. Jangersen on the Structure 



curved a little inward (radially), and besides at its base feebly 

 convex towards the back of the hand ; that is to say, it is not 

 unlike the corresponding bone in Rana^ except in its long 

 and slender form. A similar form is possessed by the outer 

 metacarpal, Mc. V, only it is curved towards the ulnar side ; 

 on the contrary, metucarpale III and metac. IV, although at 

 their bases a little concave on the underside, are rather 

 strongly curved, with the convexity tmvards the palmar side ; 

 so that the whole hand seems to have the back concave and 

 the palm convex. As the bases of metacarpale II and 

 metac. V project over the level of the two middle metacarpals, 

 the two outer fingers can be turned inwards over the middle 

 fingers ; and such being the case, the hand seems still nar- 

 rower and its back looks still more concave. All the meta- 

 carpals are long and slender ; the two middle ones are about 

 equal in length, but are somewhat longer than the outer, 

 which are also nearly of equal length. Of the fingers the 

 innermost (II) is shortest, the penultimate (IV) longest ; next 

 comes the third (III), and last the outer (V) ; the number of 

 the phalanges is 2, 2, 3, 3 (counting from the radial side), as 

 typical in Anurans. 



That the earlier authors gave wrong descriptions of the 

 fingers was due to the mistakes above mentioned. Thus 

 Schneider says {I. c. p. 262): — ^'' Externi digiti articulos 2, 

 ante penultimi itidem 2 ut tertii, intimi 3 numeravi, quibus 

 adha^ret pars extrema aculcata. Sed pedum anteriorum 

 articulos extremos agnosccre accurate non licuit, prtefractis 

 plerisque mucronibus." The figure shows the fingers incor- 

 rectly and does not agree with the text. Breyer only refers to 

 his figures, of which that on tab. i. represents three phalanges 

 in all the fingers and the shortest finger towards the outer 

 side ; that on tab. ii. gives the correct number, but the hand, 

 as stated above, is turned so that the inner finger comes to 

 lie on the outer side. Meckel {I. c. p. 466) says concerning the 

 Anurans: — " Der zwcite und drittc Finger habcn im allge- 

 meinen zwei, die beiden aiisseren drei Glicder. Doch hat 

 Pij^a an den drei inneren drei, am dussersien nur zwei." And 

 later on : " Im allgcmeinen ist der zweite vollkommene Finger 

 (eigentlich also der dritte) der bei weitcm kiirzeste, dor darauf 

 naeh ausscn folgende der liingstc : bei Pijui dagogon ist dor 

 zweite der liingste." Mayer makes no remarks about the 

 fingers ; but in the work of Dumcril and Bibron * (who do 

 not go into the osteology of the hand) we road : — " Le second 



* ' KrpoLiilogit' goiK'ialt',' t. \iii. \>. 77-"). 



