224 CLASS xv. 



the salamanders some vasa efferentia from the testes unite to form a 

 longitudinal canal, from which many tortuous branches arise, whose 

 union forms an epididymis near the testes, and which afterwards 

 run straight outwards and are inserted into the efferent vessel 1 . In 

 the tortoises, to each of the efferent vessels a long convoluted 

 organ resembling intestine is attached before they terminate in the 

 cloaca. A penis does not exist in the frogs and most of the naked 

 amphibians, but in the land- and water-salamanders there is an im- 

 perforate and very vascular penis of an inversely heart-like form 2 . 

 In the scaly reptiles, the haplopnoa, there is on the contrary always 

 an external sexual organ for copulation. This penis is a double 

 coecal tube, which can be inverted like the finger of a glove, in most 

 of the lizards and the serpents. A furrow runs along the inside of 

 the tube, which on erection and inversion becomes an external furrow 

 for transmission of the sperm. This double penis lies on the outside 

 of the cloaca on the dorsal surface or under the tail. In the croco- 

 diles and chelonians, on the other hand, the penis is simple, composed 

 of two fibrous bodies which have coalesced in the mid-plane, and 

 with a channel or groove on the upper part, which is covered by an 

 erectile spongy body (corpus cavernosum) that is enlarged into a 

 gland at the extremity. This organ is attached to the anterior wall 

 of the cloaca, where in the females of these animals a clitoris is also 

 attached 3 . 



1 This epididymis lies in front of the kidneys, of which BIDDER considers it to form 

 a part, so that, as in the frogs epididymis and kidney are united to form a whole, in 

 the salamanders also these organs are not distinct (1. 1. p. 36). Moreover from 

 the firmer and posterior kidney, which is usually regarded as the sole kidney, 

 there proceed in the salamanders a number of ducts which unite to form a short 

 ureter. According to DUVEBNOY the ureter opens separately, according to BIDDER 

 united with the vas deferens, into the cloaca. See DUVERNOY Fragments sur les organes 

 genito-urinaires des Reptiles, Paris, 1848, Mem. de VAcad. des Sc. de Paris, Sav. etrang. 

 XI. PI. I. fig. 9. 



3 See J. H. FINGER De Tritonum genitalibus eorumque functione. Marburgi, 1841, 

 4to, pp. 22, 23, figs. 2, 3. Compare also on the uro-genital apparatus, VON WITTICH 

 Beitrdge zur morphologischen u. histologischen Entwiclcelung der Ham- und Geschleckts- 

 iverJczeuge der nackten Amphibien, Zeitschr. f. wissensch. Zool. iv. 1852, pp. 125 167, 

 Taf. ix. x. ; the same, Harn- und Geschlechtsorgane von Discoglossus pictus und einiger 

 anderer aussereuropdischer Batrachier, ibid. pp. 168 177, Taf. x. figs, i, 2. 



3 Conip. J. MUELLER Bau der erectilen mannlichen Geschlechts organe, &c. Berlin 

 1838, (Abh. der Eimigl. ATcad. d. Wiss. zu Berlin, Physik. Kl.) Tab. m. figs. 4, 5. 

 On the organs of propagation in reptiles, besides the works already quoted, may 

 be consulted KATHKE Ueber die Entwiclcelung der Geschlechtstheik bei den Amphibien, 



I 



