2'/6 



SF.ITARO GOTO. 



exists between the Anura and Urodela. That whole portion of the axial 

 continuation behind the coccyx, more or less coinciding with the position 

 of the vent, is the transitional tail." 



With regard to the number of presacral vertebrae in Pipa, it is to be 

 remarked that the first vertebra has been shown by Adolphi ['93, p. 315], 

 Howes ['93, p. 275], and Ridewood ['97, p. 360] to be composed of the 

 united atlas and epistropheus, and hence the eighth of Gadow is in reality 

 the ninth vertebra. We have then among living Anura, Pipa and Pelo- 

 bates with the sacrum formed by the ninth and tenth vertebrae, and 

 Hymenochirus with the sixth and seventh as the sacrum. 



Sacral variations more or less similar to those described in this paper 

 have been observed in the Anura* by Goette ['75, Pl. XIXJ, Adolphi ['95, 

 '96], Howes [ '86], Lataste, and Camerano (the last two cited after 

 Bateson), and by Parker [96], Bumpus ['97], and Waite ['97] in Necturus- 

 maculatus.§ As to their phyletic significance, we may follow out the 

 arguments of Gadow and Adolphi ['95, p. 475] as applied to the Anura, and 

 conclude that the variations described in this paper as case 3, 4, and 5 are 

 to be regarded as due to a more or less complete reversion to ancestral 

 conditions. The fusion of the eighth and seventh vertebrae described as 

 case 2 is probably also to be brought into connection with the shifting of 

 the sacrum ; but whether it is to be regarded as an atavistic or a neogenetic 

 variation will depend upon the view one takes of the phylogeny of the 

 genus Bufo 



Case 6. Bufo vulgaris, <£ . Tïuo spleens with separate arteries. 

 (Cut 6 and 7.) 



In a normal specimen of this animal, the spleen is a nearly spherical 

 or irregularly polyhedral organ attached to the mesorectum, near the 

 anterior end of the rectum on the left side. The lienal artery or arteries 

 branch off from the anterior mesenteric artery, and the vein or veins 

 empty into the intestinal portion of the portal vein. In six normal specimens 



* I regret to say that Ridewood's paper of igoi-1902, which appears to have a direct bearing 

 On the cases described above, is not accessible to me. 

 § Cf. also Winslow [ : 04]. 



