1910.] ON FAT-BODIES IN TOADS OF THE GENUS BUFO. 379 



3. On certain Subcutaneous Fat-Bodies in Toads of the. 

 Genus Bufo. By C. L. Boulenger, M.A., F.Z.S., 

 -King's College, Cambridge. 



[Received January 10, 1910.] .. . 



(Text-figures 37 & 38.) 



I. Introductory. 



Some little while ago, when engaged in dissecting some African 

 toads of the genus Bufo, Mr. E. Degen, F.Z.S., noticed that certain 

 specimens possessed curious gland-like deposits of fat between the 

 skin and ventral body-wall of the abdominal region. He was 

 so kind as to call my attention to these structures, and I came to 

 the conclusion that it would be of interest to more fully investi- 

 gate this point in Batrachian anatomy. 



Examination of specimens of Bufo regularis obtained by Dr. 

 Ounnington and myself from the Fayum province of Egypt 

 showed similar fat-bodies to be present in this species and induced 

 me to examine other allied toads, many of which were found to 

 possess analogous deposits of fat. 



I was able to dissect a large number of adequate representatives 

 of various species of Bufo. For this my grateful acknowledgments 

 are mainly due to my father, Mr. G. A. Boulenger, F.R.S., 

 who allowed me to examine numerous duplicates from the col- 

 lections under his care at the British Museum. To Dr. F. Werner, 

 of Vienna, I am indebted for a number of living specimens of 

 the European Green Toad, Bufo viridis. 



The very rare occurrence of adipose tissue in connection with 

 the muscular system of Batrachia has often been commented on ; 

 thus Ant. Duges (1) in his classical work on the myology and 

 osteology of Batrachians, published in 1835, made the following 

 generalization in his definition of the group :— " Une particularite 

 des longtemps remarquee c'est l'isolement reciproque des muscles 

 et de la peau, du a l'absence du pannicule graisseux dont on trouve 

 a peine quelques paquets autour du cou chez les sujets a grand 

 embonpoint." 



Corpora adiposa below the skin are, however, not quite 

 unknown. 



The most recent contribution to our knowledge of this subject 

 is to be found in a paper by F. E. Beddard (7) on the anatomy 

 of the Engystomatid Hemisus, the author describing a pair of 

 conspicuous fat-bodies in lymph -sacs in the iliac region. These 

 structures are lobulated masses of fat of considerable size, in 



