Observations on the genus Salamandra : and description of a new genus of quadrupeds, of the order Edentata / by Richard Harlan.

  • Richard Harlan
Date:
[1825]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Observations on the genus Salamandra : and description of a new genus of quadrupeds, of the order Edentata / by Richard Harlan. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    Organs of Sense. The eye is smaller proportionally than in the common Salamanders, in which respect it resembles the Axolotl; the ear, like that organ in the Salamanders, does not appear externally. Organs of Digestion. Lower jaw furnished with a single row of teeth ; upper, with two concentric rows, the interior semicircular, at the posterior terminations of which are the patulous openings of the posterior nares. Tongue free at the anterior portion; the operculum half way between the fore- leg and the posterior termination of the rictus of the mouth; opercular cartilages, three in number, the opening between the two inferior ;* their posterior extremities, unlike the Sala- manders, are free, or not united to the vertebrae ; anteriorly they are united by synchondrosis to the inferior cornua of the os hyoides; the bones of the tongue differ widely from the Same in the Salamandrce and Proteus, which will be compre- hended by reference to the plate, and comparing them with the figures in the elaborate works of the Italian naturalists: “ Descrizione Anatomica delle Salamandra aquatiche,” by Dr. Rusconi, and “ Del Proteo anguino, monografia da Configliachi,” much better than from description ; the parts were sketched, in situ, immediately after dissection, by Mr. T. R. Peale, to whom I am also indebted for two spirited drawings taken from life : one of this animal, the other of the Triton lateralis. The oesophagus is short, and folded longitudinally ; the stomach is large, and for the nost part membranous, but be- comes muscular near the pylorus ; it contained two pebbles about the size of the finger-end, and two others much smaller, also the claw of a fresh-water lobster, which the animal had * In this respect the Salamandra Alleglianiensis agrees with the Amphi- uma—in both, the operculi exist through life. In the Salamandrce, and other batracians, on the contrary, these openings do not exist in the adult state.
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