ABSORPTION. 353 



auxiliaries to the veins, may therefore be re- 

 garded as a refinement in organization, peculiar 

 to the higher classes of animals*. 



Professor Muller, of Bonn, has lately disco- 

 vered that the frog, and several other amphibious 

 animals, are provided with large receptacles for 

 the lymph, situated immediately under the skin, 

 and exhibiting distinct and regular pulsations, 

 like the heart. The use of these lymphatic 

 hearts, as they may be called, is evidently to 

 propel the lymph in its proper course along the 

 lymphatic vessels. In the frog four of these 

 organs have been found ; the two posterior hearts 

 being situated behind the joint of the hip, and the 

 two anterior ones on each side of the transverse 

 process of the third vertebra, and under the 

 posterior extremity of the scapula. The pulsa- 

 tions of these lymphatic hearts do not correspond 

 with those of the sanguiferous heart; nor do 

 those of the right and left sides take place at 

 the same times, but they often alternate in an 

 irregular manner. Professor Muller has disco- 

 vered similar organs in the toad, the salamander, 

 and the green lizard, and thinks it probable that 

 they exist in all the amphibia t. 



♦ Fohmann, who has made extensive researches on the ab- 

 sorbent vessels throughout all the classes of vertebrated animals, 

 has found that they terminate extensively in the veins. See his 

 work, entitled " Anatomische Untersuchungen uber die Ver- 

 bindung der Saugadern mit den Venen." 



t Phil. Trans, for 1833, p. 89, 



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