( 
in the intestine of the tadpole. 305 
terminates in the intestine. All these parts were embedded 
in. fat, which filled every part of the abdomen, not occupied 
by the liver, which had acquired a large size. The lungs 
were filled with air, and the gills had entirely disappeared. 
When the tail has dropped off, leaving the projecting root, 
which takes place in seven days more, the only internal 
change met with, was, that no fat whatever was found in the 
cavity of the abdomen. 
The great length of the intestine which has been described, 
has nothing analogous to it in the caterpillar, and is probably 
confined to the frog tribe. 
The egg of a frog bears no proportion in size, to those of 
the other animals of the same class, and differs from them in 
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having no yelk, therefore, although it contains sufficient mate* 
rials for the formation of the tadpole, something is still want- 
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ing, before it can be metamorphosed into a frog ; and in the 
tadpole state, a store of fat is laid up, beyond what is required 
for its own immediate support and future growth, to furnish 
the necessary means of supplying the different structures in 
the frog, not already existing in the tadpole ; and this fat 
appears to be formed in the intestine. 
The length of intestine in the tadpole, when its relative pro- 
portion to the size of the animal is considered, exceeds every 
thing of the kind that is met with in other animals. 
In the tadpole of the Surinam frog, the intestine after it has 
acquired its full size, does not remain of this enormous length, 
beyond the period of its metamorphosis into the frog taking 
place; and what is deserving of particular attention, the fat 
is deposited, when the intestine has acquired its full size, and 
no sooner is the intestine reduced in length, than not only no 
