34 MR. F. E. BEDDABD ON THE [Jan, 14, 



contour of bhe body which extends foi^ a great distance behind 

 the coccyx. In an example of Breviceps measuring 38 mm. 

 from snout to anus the distance from the tip of the coccyx to the 

 anus was quite 7 mm., i.e., more than one-fifth of the total body- 

 length. Furthermore, the breadth of the thighs adds to the 

 large space which intervenes between the posteiior edge of the 

 abdominal muscles where they reach the back and the posterior 

 end of the trunk. It is in this large space (see text-fig. 4, p. 20), 

 loosely covered by the skin which does not adhere to the leg until 

 the knee, that the posterior lymph-hearts lie on either side. They 

 do not, however, occupy the whole of this considerable tract. 

 Each, however, is no less than 10 or 11 mm. long in the individual 

 Brevice])s whose total body-length has been mentioned above. 

 The posterior lymph-heart of Brevicejjs is therefore between one- 

 quarter and one-third of its total body-length. With this may be 

 contrasted the proportions found in Bana, where (in B. teni2)oraria 

 or B. esculenta — very much larger species) the length of the 

 posterior lymph-heart is given in Haslam's Translation of Ecker's 

 ' Frog' as " about two lines," i. e. 4 or 5 millimetres*. That is to 

 say, the posterior lymph-hearts of a frog half or one-third of the 

 size of Bana esculenta are twice or thrice the bulk of those of that 

 Bana. This appears to me to be a very remarkable anatomical 

 fact, and one which argues considerable physiological difierences. 

 The posterior end of each lymph-sac was ahout 4 or 5 mm. from 

 the posterior end of the body. This space was occupied by a 

 a lymph-sac corresponding, I presume, to the femoral lymph-sac 

 of Bana. It lies at any rate on the thigh-muscles. I found this 

 space on each side filled with a coagulated flocculent mass, pro- 

 bably lymph. This space bears a relation to its corresponding 

 lymph-heart similar to that of an auricle to a ventricle. When 

 the skin of the back is carefully reflected from the middle line, 

 the lymph-heart is at once exposed. No muscles lie between it 

 and the integument. It is, however, slightly attached to the 

 skin here and there by fibres continuous with its own muscular 

 walls. These fibres arranged in slender bundles sjpread out in a 

 fan-shaped fashion over the skin. They form presumably a fixed 

 point or points to render eflective the contractions of the lymph- 

 heart. It may be also that the fibres thus attached belong really 

 to the cutaneous muscular system and correspond in particular to 

 the cutaneus clorsi of Bana ; for other cutaneous muscles are 

 associated with the septa of lymph-sacs. In a general way also 

 these fibres suggest the"«Z(:e cordis" of Arthropods. In any 

 case the anatomical facts are as has been stated, and are shown 

 in the accompanying figure (text-fig. 11). These fibres as well 

 as the lymph-hearts lie dorsally to and unconnected with the 

 dorsal muscles (which are described on another page f), although 

 the anterior end of the lymph-heart overlaps the end of the dorsal 



* In a large example of Bufo mdgaris measuring 115 mm., I found a lymph- 

 heart to be 5 mm. 

 t Supra, p. 19. 



