RAN 



11 A N 



the work already mentioned. Tiiis work was a collcclion 

 of all the voyages and travels that had hitherto been piib- 

 lifhed ; in which he gave tranflations of thofe in foreitni lan- 

 guages ; and he prefixed difiertations, in which he diligently 

 examined the pretenfions of different authors, comparing 

 ihcm with one another. 



RAN, in our Old Wrilcis, is ufed for open and public 

 robbery, fo manifeit that it cannot be denied. " Ran 

 dicitur aperta rapina cjux negari non potell." Lamb. 125. 

 Leg. Canut. cap. 58. Hence it is to this day vulgarly 

 faid of Bne who takes the goods ot another injurioufiy and 

 violently, that he has taken or fnatchcd all he could nip 

 and ran. 



Ran, twenty cords of twine, wound on a reel ; and every 

 cord fo parted by a knot, as to be eafdy feparated. 



RANA, in Geography, a town of Auitria ; 12 miles S. 

 of Aigcn. — Alfo, a town of Auilria ; 13 miles S.S.W. of 

 Zwetl. 



Rana, or Orano'i, one of the Sandwich iflands, in the 

 North Pacific ocean, fituatcd about three leagues from 

 Mowec and JVIorotoi, and lying to the S.W. of the paflage 

 between thefe iflands. The country to the foiith is high 

 and craggy ; but the other part? of the ifland had a better 

 afpeft, and appeared to be well inhabited. It produces 

 very few plantains, and bread-fruit trees ; but abounds in 

 roots, fuch as yams, fweet potatoes, and tarrow. The 

 number of inhabitants is eftimated at 20,400. Its S. point 

 is in lat. 20° 46'. E. long. 203° 8'. Cook's Third Voyage, 

 vol. iii. ' 



Rana, in Surgery. See Ranula. 



Rana, in Zooiogy, the frog, a genus of the clafs Amphi- 

 bia, of the divifion Reptiles, of which the generic cha- 

 rafter is : Body four-footed, naked ; it generally has no 

 tail, the hind legs are longer than the fore. This genus 

 diflers from the Lacerla (fee the art. Lizard), in having a 

 fhorter body, broader, thicker head, and in general no 

 tail. The animals of it feed on infefts ; they are full 

 grown about the fourth year, and feldom live beyond the 

 twelfth. Their fore-feet are mollly cleft, having four toes : 

 their hind-feet are palmate and five-toed ; they arc extremely 

 falacious, flicking to the female for days and weeks : the 

 tadpole is excluded from the egg without feet, but with a 

 tail refembling a fifh's, which drops off as the legs are pro- 

 truded ; in this ftate they have likewife a fort of gills and 

 lungs, and many have a fmall tube on the lower lip, by 

 which they can affix themfelves to other bodies ; near the 

 left eye is a veficle, from which they difcharge water : in 

 breeding time, the fore-thumb of the male is warty : toads, 

 as we all know, are filthy in their afpeft, and live in 

 damp, obfcure, dark places, and crawl out only by night : 

 their eggs are in a long chain : frogs are more aftive, 

 and more about by dav ; thefe lay their eggs in a confufed 

 mafs. 



Dr. Shaw, in his entertaining and inftruftive Zoology, 

 fays this genus may be divided into three feftions ; vi-z. 

 I. Frogs, commonly called Rana, with light aftive bo- 

 dies, and which leap when diflurbed. 2. Slender-limbed 

 frogs, Hylis, Calamity, or Rane arboree, I'iz. fuch as have 

 light bodies, very fleuder limbs, and toes terminating in 

 flat, circularly expanded tips, enabling the animal to adhere 

 at pleafure to the furface even of the fmootheft bodies. 

 Several of this divifion aftually refide on trees, adhering by 

 their toes to the lower furfaces of the leaves and branches. 

 3. Toads, Bufones, or fuch as have heavy bodies, fhort thick 

 limbs, and which rather crawl than leap when difturbed. 



Gmelin has given a different arrangement, which, ac- 

 cording to our ulual cultom, we fhall follow in this ar- 



ticle. He divides the genus into three feftions, W*. A, 

 thofcwith warty and puffed up bodies; and fhort legs : 

 thefe are tcads. B, thole with bodies rather oblong, 

 fmooth and witii longer legs : thefe zts frogs, properly fo 

 called. And C, whole hind feet arc very long ; and whofe 

 claws are lenticulate. Dr. Shaw enumerates more than 

 fifty fpccies, but Gmelin dcfcribcs only thirty-fix. 



SeAion A. — Body tuarty,' puffed up: Jhorter Legt. 

 Species. 



Pii'A ; Surinam Toad. The toes of tlie fore-feet of this 

 fpecies are unarmed, four-cleft ; thofe of the hind-feet are 

 clawed and palmate. 



This hideous and deformed animal inhabits the waters of 

 Guiana, and is adtually eaten by the natives. The male, 

 after the excluCon of the eggs, colleds the mafs together, 

 and fmears it over the back of tiie females with its paws, 

 where they arc received into fmall cells, impregnated by the 

 males and doled up ; after fome time the perfect young 

 are excluded from thofe hollow tubercles on the back of the 

 female. 



The fize of the P'lpa confiderably exceeds that of the 

 common toad ; the head is flat, broad, and very fhort ; the 

 beak is fpatula-fliaped ; the eyes very fmall and remote; 

 neck very fliort, wrinkled; the body is orbicular, flat, with 

 a hard cartilaginous fliin ; the fore toes are round, and the 

 hind ones very long, connefted by an undivided membrane. 

 This fpecies was firll made known to the Europeans about 

 the latter end of the i7th century. 



MusicA ; Mufical Toad. The fpecific character of this 

 is, that it has gibbous flioulders that are dotted ; the body 

 is varied with lurid and brown ; the fore-feet are cleft, and 

 the hind-feet are fubpalmate and five-toed, with fcarccly 

 any claws. It inhabits the frefli waters of Surinam : it is 

 larger than the common toad : in the evening, and during 

 the whole night, it keeps up a continual mufical kind of 

 croaking ; hence it takes its name. 



*BuFO ; Common Toad. Body lurid and brown : of 

 this animal there are three varieties, as follows : the firfl 

 has its back of an olive colour ; and an unequal yellowifh- 

 red band down the fide : the body of the fecond is marked 

 with confluent green fpots and warts on the fpots of the 

 fame colour, thofe of the intervals red, the fpaces be- 

 tween bicoloured. The third is particularly difl:inguifhed 

 for its fize, being much lefs than the others. This of all 

 the European toads feems to be the moff univerfally known. 

 It is found in fhady places, in gardens, woods, and fields, 

 and frequently makes its way into cellars, or any obfcure 

 receffes in which it may occafionally conceal itfelf, and 

 where it may find a fupply of food, or a fecurity from too 

 great a degree of cold. In the early part of fpring, like 

 others of this genus, it retires to the waters, where it con- 

 tinues during the breeding feafon, and depofits its ova or 

 fpawn in the form of double necklace-like chains or firings 

 of beautifully tranfparent gluten, and of the length of three 

 or four feet, in each of which are difpofed the ova in a con- 

 tinued double feries throughout the whole length, having the 

 appearance of fo many fmall jet-black globules or beads ; 

 being in reality no other than the tadpoles or larvse convo- 

 luted into a globular form, and waiting for the period of 

 their evolution, or hatching, which takes place in the fpace 

 of about fourteen or fifteen days, when they break from 

 the furrounding gluten, and like tlie tadpoles of frogs, fwim 

 about in the water, and are nouriflied by various animal- 

 cules, gluten, leaves of water-plants, &c. &c. till, having 

 arrived at their full growth, the legs are formed, the taU 

 3 E 2 gradually 



