EVOLUTION 01? AMNION ANIMALS. 1 35 



Animals. AH these, even such as live in the water, e.g., 

 whales, respire only air through lungs, never water through 

 giUs. While all Amphibians, with very few exceptions, in 

 the young state retain their gills for a longer or shorter 

 period, and breathe through gills for some time (if not 

 always), from this point gill-respiration entirely ceases. 

 Even the Protamnion must have entirely ceased to breathe 

 water. The giU-arches, however, remain, and develop 

 into very different organs (partly rudimentary); into the 

 various parts of the tongue-bone, into certain portions of the 

 jaw apparatus, the organ of hearing, etc. But no trace of 

 gill-leaves, of real respiratory organs on the gill-arches, are 

 ever found in the embryo of Amnion Animals. 



With this total loss of the giUs is probably connected 

 the formation of another organ, which we have akeady 

 described as occurring in human Ontogeny ; this is the 

 aUantois, or primitive urinary sac. (See vol. i. p. 379.) In 

 all probability the urinary bladder of the Dipneusta is to be 

 regarded as the first beginning of the aUantois. Even in 

 the American Mud-fish {Lepidosiren) we find an urinary 

 bladder, which grows from the lower wall of the posterior 

 extremity of the intestine, and serves as a receptacle for 

 the renal secretions. This organ has been inherited by the 

 Amphibia, as may be seen in any Frog. But it is only in 

 the three higher Vertebrate classes that the aUantois attains 

 a special development ; in these it protrudes at an early 

 period from the body of the embryo, forming a large sac 

 fiUed with liquid, and traversed by a considerable number 

 of large blood-vessels. This sac also discharges a portion of 

 the nutritive functions. In the higher Mammals and in 

 Man the aUantois afterwards forms the placenta. 



