DEVELOPMENT OE FAT-BODIES IN DANA TEMPORARIA. 133 
Development of the Fat-bodies in Rana tem- 
poraria. A Contribution to the History of 
the Pronephros. 
By 
Arthur E. Giles, B.Sc.(Loml.), 91. B., Ch.B«(Tict«)> 
PJatt Physiological Scholar, Owens College, Manchester ; 
House Surgeon, Manchester Royal Infirmary. 
With Plate XIV. 
It has generally been held, since the researches of von 
Wittich, that the fat-bodies, or corpora adiposa, in the Frog 
and allied Amphibians, are derived from the genital organs by 
a process of fatty degeneration in the anterior end of the 
primitive genital ridge. 
Yon Wittich himself says 1 “they (the fat-bodies) have not 
at any time any connection with the Wolffian bodies, nor with 
the kidneys or their ducts.” And again, “the genital organs 
become constricted into an anterior and a posterior part, of 
which the anterior becomes the fat-body, and the posterior the 
genital organ.” 
This investigation, conducted in the biological laboratories 
of Owens College, was begun with the intention of ascertain- 
ing if these views of von Wittich were correct. But its pro- 
gress showed that the mode of development of the fat-bodies 
is very different from what von Wittich thought, and that the 
changes which take place are of a very interesting nature. 
On dissecting a tailed Frog, as represented in fig. 1, the fat- 
bodies were seen already beginning to take on the lobose form 
1 ‘Beitrage zur morphologischen und histologischeu Eutwickelung der 
Ilarn und Geschleclits Werkzeuge der nackten Amphibien,” ‘ Zeits. fur wiss. 
Zool.,’ 4te Band, 1853, pp. 148, 149. 
VOL. XXIX, PART 2. NEW SER. 
K 
