Branchia in the young Caecilias. 357 



It then becomes necessary so to separate them into tivo di- 

 stinct tribes : — the first of which I name Celatibranchia, sig- 

 nifying the gill-fringes concealed ; and the second I designate 

 by the term Prolatibranchia, i. e. having the giU-tvfts ex- 

 posed. Nevertheless, much still remains to be investigated 

 with respect to the early mode of life, aquatic respiration, de- 

 velopment of the lungs, and changes in the circulatory organs 

 of the CceciUmis. 



In Prof. Miiller's arrangement given above, the Ccecilice are 

 classed in the first order of his Amjjhibia nuda under the 

 name of Gymnophidia, or Naked Serpents; though I must 

 observe, that this name cannot be strictly applied to these 

 snake-like Amphibians, because they are in reality not altoge- 

 ther naked, being furnished with numerous small scales. 



M. Dumeril also says in his Memoir*, that M. Bibronand 

 himself have determined, " in the eighth volume of the * Na- 

 tural History of Reptiles,^ which is now printing, to establish 

 amongst the Batrachians, and under the name of Peromeles, 

 a first sub-order comprising all the genera that are without 

 legs. These are four in number, and compose a family which 

 we call Ophiosomes or Cecilo'ides, because these appellations 

 will remind us of their resemblance to the Serpents, and at 

 the same time will recall the principal genus — the most nu- 

 merous in species — which is distinguished as the first by the 

 name of CcEcilia." 



However, I may here remark, that this sub-order of Pero- 

 mHes, derived from 7n]po<;, iva?iting, and /xeXo^;, limb or leg, is 

 merely s3aionymous with OppeFs family Apoda, which he 

 formed in 1811 for the genus Ccecilia, although previously 

 given by Linnaeus to an order of Fishes, and which has been 

 subsequently adopted by several zoologists. But in what 

 order or family M. de Blainville has recently placed the Caci- 

 li(B in his system of Amphibiology, given in 1836 in his de- 

 scription of reptiles brought from Cahfornia by M. Botta, I 

 cannot ascertain, not having seen the work itself, but only 

 the passage in the historical notice, before cited, from the 

 'Comptes Rendus/ p. 673. Yet I am much gratified in learn- 

 ing that M. de Blainville agrees with me in making the Ba- 

 trachians (of the French naturalists) constitute a distinct class 

 under the name of Amphibia, and not merely the fourth order 

 of the class Reptilia, according to the old arrangement of M. 

 Brongniart and his followers, as MM. Daudin, Dumeril, Cu- 

 vier, etc. 



Again, I think a further modification is requisite in my 



* Comptes Rendus, 1839, torn. ix. No. 20. p. 583. 



