No. 32. — 1886.] SCIENTIFIC RESEARCHES. 



297 



breathes air. Now, the question is this : Does Epicrium 

 show the same mode of development as the water-salamander, 

 or not ? 



It was known that the order Epicrium has been found 

 living in the water, and at each side of the head, where gills 

 were expected to be, they had little openings. But this was 

 all that was known about the development of Epicrium. 

 Here began our work. It was evident that we had two 

 suppositions : Either, Epicrium lays its eggs in the water, 

 and there the young ones take their development (as is the 

 case with the salamander), or Epicrium is viviparous. So 

 we carefully examined all ponds and rivers in the vicinity 

 of which we found the full-grown animals, but though we 

 often met with young specimens living in water, with a gill- 

 hole at each side of the head, yet we never found gills, but 

 always well-formed lungs ; earlier stages did not come to our 

 notice. So we began to dissect the full-grown animals, and 

 to examine them for embryos ; we opened about a thousand 

 females, yet we never obtained the result so much wished 

 for. At last a cooly brought a little lump of eggs, which he 

 had found in the ground near a rivulet, and from this 

 moment the mode of development was discovered, which 

 generally proceeds in the following manner : — The pregnant 

 female forms in the soft damp soil at first a small globular 

 cavity, and deposits there a lump of about thirty pretty large 

 eggs, connected with each other by a sort of string. The 

 mother curls herself round the eggs, and broods probably 

 in order to keep them damp with her body in the case of 

 sudden drought. The eggs are of the size of a very large 

 pea, and yellow, bearing a close resemblance to those of 

 reptiles, the lizard for instance ; in size, therefore, they can- 

 not be compared to the eggs of a frog. In such an egg an 

 . embryo develops, which is especially interesting owing to 

 the circumstance that behind the eyes, on the same spot 

 where the salamander has them, three long gills are growing, 

 of which one is directed forward, one upward, and one 



