128 Ciliary Motions in Reptiles and Warm-bloodeh Animals. 



from which the lower jaw has been separated On this part of 

 the mouth also the general course is longitudinal, from before 

 backwards ; at the nostrils, h, h 9 especially in the newt, the 

 particles are drawn in at one edge of the opening and issue at 

 the other, as indicated in the outline of Fig. 3. 



I do not hazard any opinion on the question 5 whether this 

 provision in the month and gullet of the batrachia serves merely 

 to convey the secretions of these parts to the stomach, or whe- 

 ther it may not also be specially connected with respiration. 

 As in some measure connected with the present subject, how- 

 ever, I may here take the opportunity of mentioning a fact re- 

 specting the newt, which I do not remember to have seen no- 

 ticed. The experiments of Spallanzani, and more especially 

 those of Edwards, have shown that the batrachian reptiles not 

 only breathe the air of the atmosphere, but can live exclusively 

 by means of the air contained in water. In the latter case, the 

 air of the water is supposed to act on the skin, since in frogs 

 immersed in water, Spallanzani never, and Edwards only in a 

 very few instances, perceived any movement of deglutition by 

 which the fluid could be conveyed into the lungs. I have, how- 

 ever, repeatedly observed that the newt, when submersed at the 

 present season of the year, regularly inhales water by the nos- 

 trils, and discharges it by the mouth at least twelve or fifteen 

 times in a minute. The water in this case certainly enters the 

 throat. Whether it reaches the lungs, or whether, on the con- 

 trary supposition, its entrance merely into the mouth and pharynx 

 forms part of the respiratory process, are questions which re- 

 main to be solved. 



In recapitulation, I may briefly state, first, that the repeti- 

 tion of Purkinje and Valentin's observations to the extent re- 

 lated, confirms their discovery of the ciliary motion in mam- 

 malia, birds, and perfect reptiles, viz. in the air-passages and 

 Fallopian tubes of mammalia, in the air-passages of birds, and 

 in the mouth and throat of the batrachia ; the negative obser- 

 vations respecting the oviduct of the bird being inconclusive. 

 Secondly, that these additional observations have also shewn, in 

 certain cases, the direction in which matters are impelled along 

 the surface. 



3. Alva Street, May 1835. 



