=Respiration.=—How many _lungs_? Are they simple or lobed? (Fig. 256.) A
lung cut open is seen to be baglike, with numerous ridges on its inner
surface. This increases the surface with which the air may come in
contact. In the walls of the lungs are numerous capillaries. Does the
frog _breathe with mouth open or closed_? Does the frog have any ribs
for expanding the chest? What part of the head expands and contracts? Is
this motion repeated at a slow or a rapid rate? Regularly or
irregularly? There are valves in the nostrils for opening and closing
them. Is there any indication of opening and closing as the throat
expands and contracts? The mouth and throat (pharynx) are filled with
air each time the throat swells, and the exchange of gases (which
gases?) takes place continually through their walls and the walls of the
lungs. At intervals the air is forced through the glottis into the
lungs. After a short time it is expelled from the lungs by the muscular
abdominal walls, which press upon the abdominal organs, and so upon the
lungs. Immediately the air is forced back into the lungs, so that they
are kept filled. In some species the lungs regularly expand at every
second contraction of the throat. This is shown by a slight outward
motion at the sides. Does the motion of the throat cease when the frog
is under water? Why would the frog be unable to breathe (except through
the skin) if its mouth were propped open? Why does the fact that the
breathing is so slow as almost to cease during hibernation, aid the frog
in going through the winter without starving? (Chap. I.) Why must frogs
and toads keep their skins moist? Which looks more like a clod? Why?
=The Heart and Circulation.=—What is the shape of the heart? (Fig.
257.) Observe the two auricles in front and the conical ventricle
behind them. The great arterial trunk from the ventricle passes
forward beyond the auricles; it divides into two branches which turn
to the right and the left (Fig. 257). Each branch immediately
subdivides into three arteries (Fig. 257), one going to the head, one
to the lungs and skin, and a third, the largest, passes backward in
the trunk, where it is united again to its fellow.
[Illustration:
FIG. 257.—PLAN OF FROG’S CIRCULATION.
Venous system is black; the arterial, white. _AU_, auricles; _V_,
ventricle; _L_, lung; _LIV_, liver. Aorta has one branch to right,
another to left, which reunite below. Right branch only persists in
birds, left branch in beasts and man.
]
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