192 
Sub-Family : Desmognathinae 
Desmognathus fusca 
‚ Desmognathus brimleyorum. 
“As it is almost a certainty that all the members of a genus are 
similar with respect to their respiratory system, the above list of 
thirteen species might be more than doubled by the enumeration of all 
the known species under each. Thus in the Cheek list of North 
American Amphibia (Washington 1875) there are 29 species and sub- 
species enumerated under the lungless Salamandrid genera, against 26 
in genera with lungs. It is also probable that the other genera of 
the sub-families of Plethodontinae and Desmognathinae are lungless, 
thus making the majority of the Salamandridae whether 
counted as genera or species, lungless animals. So 
deep-seated and striking a peculiarity ought to be incorporated in our 
definition of the Salamandridae, and might also be stated, whenever 
inclusive, in the definition of certain of the sub-families. 
No definition hitherto published seems to mention the fact, and 
some even state that lungs are universal. Thus in HorrmMann’s 
“Amphibien”, in Bronn’s “Klassen und Ordnungen”, the definition 
under Salamandrida, p. 661, states that they “athmen aus- 
schließlich durch Lungen”. This clause of all such definitions 
must be changed, and I would recommend instead — respira- 
tion is carried on through the integument and the 
walls of the alimentary canal. In addition to this, lar- 
val forms develop external gill-bushes, and in some 
genera lungs develop in the adult state. In thelungless 
forms, laryngo-tracheal muscles appear and assist in 
pharyngeal respiration. 
Smith College, Northampton, Mass., 
March 31th, 1896. 
Note. 
Since the above paper went to press my attention has been called 
to the recent paper of LONNBERG “Notes on tailed Batrachians with- 
out lungs’, Zool. Anzeiger Bd. XIX, No. 494. As LÖNNBERG has 
anticipated me in two of the species I have named, will the reader 
place his name after Plethodon glutinosus and Manculus quadri- 
digitatus in the list above and add to it, Desmognathus auriculatus 
and Amblystoma opacum, the latter with lung rudiments. I wish 
also to note a new paper by CAMERANO “Nuove ricerche intorno ai 
Salamandridi normalmenti apneumoni”, Turin 1896. 
Frommannsche Buchdruckerei (Hermann Pohle) in Jena. 
