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 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. (Colored Fig. 2.)
Both of the pulmonary veins, returning to the heart with pure
blood from the lungs, empty into the left auricle. Veins with the
impure blood from the body empty into the right auricle. Both the
auricles empty into the ventricles, but the pure and impure blood
are prevented from thoroughly mixing by ridges on the inside of the
ventricle. Only in an animal with a four-chambered heart does pure
blood from the lungs pass unmixed and pure to all parts of the body,
and only such animals are warm-blooded. The purer (_i.e._ the more
oxygenated) the blood, the greater the oxidation and warmth.
The red corpuscles in a frog’s _blood_ are oval and larger than those
of man. Are all of them nucleated? (Fig. 258.) The flow of _blood_ in
the web of a frog’s foot is a striking and interesting sight. It may
be easily shown by wrapping a small frog in a wet cloth and laying it
with one foot extended upon a glass slip on the stage of a microscope.
[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.]
[Illustration: FIG. 258.--FROG’S BLOOD (magnified 2500 areas). Red
cells oval, nucleated, and larger than human blood cells. Nuclei of two
white cells visible near center. (Peabody.)]
[Illustration: FIG. 259.--BRAIN OF FROG.]
[Illustration: FIG. 260.--NERVOUS SYSTEM OF FROG.]
The =brain= of the frog (Fig. 259) is much like that of a fish (Fig.
224). The _olfactory_, _cerebral_, and _optic lobes_, _cerebellum_
and _medulla_ are in the same relative position, although their
relative sizes are not the same. Compared with the other parts,
are the olfactory lobes more or less developed than in a fish? The
cerebral hemispheres? The optic lobes? The cerebellum? There is a
cavity in the brain. It is readily exposed on the under surface of
the medulla by cutting the membrane, which is there its only covering
(Fig. 259).
[Illustration: FIG. 261.--Position of legs in tailless (_A_) and tailed
(_B_) amphibian.]
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