682 MK. F. E. BEDDARD ON THE [Juue 16, 



When the body of the male is ciit open, the whole of the alimentary 

 tract is displayed and may be seen without moving that tract or 

 adjacent organs. On the other hand, in the female the coils of 

 the gut are rather more complex. The difference, as will be seen, 

 is due to the greater accentuation in the female of the loops of 

 the intestine. This is obviously associated with a considerable 

 difference in the length of the tube in the two sexes. The 

 measurements of two individuals were as follows : — In a male 

 measuring 22 mm. from snout to anus (the anterior process of 

 the snout being omitted) the gut from the commencement of 

 the ascending limb, which may or may not belong really to the 

 stomach, to the point of entrance into the colon of the ileum was 

 only 18 mm. In a female measuring 28 mm. the gut was 35 mm. 

 In the former, therefore, the gut is actually shoiter than the body 

 length. It is rather longer in the female. 



§ Uro-Genital Organs. 



The kidneys have the flattened leaf -like form that characterises 

 those organs in Rana. They were, however, — in an example in 

 which I measured them — proportionately very much larger than 

 in an example of Rana esculenta, of which I made measurements 

 for the purposes of comparison. The specimen of Rhinoderma 

 darioini measured from the extremity of the snout (this example 

 had not the anterior prolongation so characteristic of the species) 

 to the anus 33 mm. The left kidney measured 8'5 mm., being 

 thus very nearly one quarter of the length of the body — an 

 extraordinary size. In coi-relation with this great size was the 

 fact that the anterior extremity of the kidney nearly reached the 

 anterior wall of the i^leuro-peritoneal cavity, and the fat-bodies 

 were so thrust against that anterior wall by the growth of the 

 kidney that they lay back over it, being directed towards the vent. 

 In a Rana escidenta measuring between the same points 175 mm., 

 the length of the corresponding kidney was only 14 or 15 mm. 

 Thus in this Batrachian (possessing a kidney of the usual size — 

 in Ecker's ' Frog' 16 mm. is the length given) the kidney was 

 only one-eleventh to one-twelfth of the body length. The 

 difference is enormous. 



The testes are spherical, much pigmented, and have the 

 mulberry-like form of those of Rana. The fat-bodies in the one 

 male which I dissected were much smaller than in both of two 

 females which I also dissected. And moreover, in all three cases 

 the left fat-body was larger than the right. In view of the 

 peculiarity of the testes in Brevicejjs in possessing only one vas 

 efferens, I was surprised to find that Rhinoderma is more normal 

 in that each testis has four or five slender vasa efterentia.. 



The oviducts are long and thick and much coiled, and thus 

 differ from those of Breviceps, presuming that the latter were 

 fully advanced in development in the specimen which I dissected. 

 It is remarkable that the proximal part of the oviduct (i. e. that 



