On the existence of branchiae in the young Caeciliae, and on a modification and extension of the branchial classification of the Amphibia / by John Hogg.

John Hogg

Date:: [1841]

Credit: On the existence of branchiae in the young Caeciliae, and on a modification and extension of the branchial classification of the Amphibia / by John Hogg. 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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$It then becomes necessary so to separate them into two di- stinct tribes:—the first of which I name Celatibranchia, sig- nifying the gill-fringes concealed; and the second I designate by the term Prolatibranchia, i. e. having the gill-tvfts ex- posed. Nevertheless, much still remains to be investigated with I'espect to the early mode of life, aquatic respiration, de- velopment of the lungs, and changes in the circulatory organs of the Ccecilians. In Prof. Muller’s arrangement given above, the Cceciliee are classed in the first order of his Amphibia nuda under the name of Gymnophidia, or Naked Serpents', though I must observe, that this name cannot be strictly applied to these snake-like Amphibians, because they are in reality not altogc- tlier naked, being furnished with numerous small scales. M. Dumeril also says in his Memoir*, that M. Bibron and himself have determined, “ in the eighth volume of the ‘ Na- tural History of Reptiles,’ which is now printing, to establish amongst the Batrachians, and under the name of Perombles, a first sub-order comprising all the genera that are without legs. These are four in number, and compose a family which we call Ophiosomes or Cecilo'ides, because these appellations •will remind us of their resemblance to the Serpents, and at the same time will recall the principal genus—the most nu- merous in species—which is distinguished as the first by the name of CceciliaJ’ However, I may here remark, that this sub-order of Pero- niMes, derived from 7rr]po<;, wanting, and yu,eXo9, limb or leg, is merely synonymous with Oppel’s family Apoda, which he formed in 1811 for the genus Ccecilia, although previously given by Linnaeus to an order of Fishes, and which has been subsequently adopted by several zoologists. But in what order or family M.de Blainville has recently placed the Cceci- lice in his system of Amphibiology, given in 1836 in his de- scription of reptiles brought from California by M. Botta, I cannot ascertain, not having seen the w'ork itself, but only the passage in the historical notice, before cited, from the ^Comptes llendus,’ p. 673. Yet I am much gratified in learn- ing that M. de Blainville agrees with me in making the Ba- trachians (of the French naturalists) constitute a distinct class under the name of Amphibia, and not merely t\\e fourth order of the class Reptilia, according to the old arrangement of M. Brongniart and his followers, as MM. Daudin, Dumeril, Cu- vier, etc. Again, I thirds a further modification is recpiisite in my • C'ompU's Reiulus, 183f), tom. ix. No. 20. p. .'jS3.$