. Our reptiles and batrachians; a plain and easy account of the lizards, snakes, newts, toads, frogs and tortoises indigenous to Great Britain. isappear. Its skin, muscles, 90 OUR REPTILES. nerves, bones, and blood-vessels atrophy, and vanish from oursight. They have not faded away, they have not simply fallenoff, they have not been cast off by a species of moulting, as inthe case of insect larvas. They have been got rid of by none ofthese methods ; their substance has been re-absorbed, atom byatom ; and hence, although it has ceased to exist, it is not theless alive on that account. We see, t
. Our reptiles and batrachians; a plain and easy account of the lizards, snakes, newts, toads, frogs and tortoises indigenous to Great Britain. isappear. Its skin, muscles, 90 OUR REPTILES. nerves, bones, and blood-vessels atrophy, and vanish from oursight. They have not faded away, they have not simply fallenoff, they have not been cast off by a species of moulting, as inthe case of insect larvas. They have been got rid of by none ofthese methods ; their substance has been re-absorbed, atom byatom ; and hence, although it has ceased to exist, it is not theless alive on that account. We see, then, that frogs undergo complete metamorphoses,not only in regard to their entire organism, but as to each set ofapparatus, with the exception of the nervous system. The sala-manders are not similarly situated. These maintain theirexternal gills throughout the entire larval period, and neveracquire internal branchiae. When reaching the air-breathingcondition, they skip as it were, one of the transformations whichfrogs undergo. The salamanders have also four legs in a perfectstate ; but then, in addition to these, they preserve the tail *. * Metamorphosis of Man and the Lower Animals. Trans-lated by Dr. Lawsen. London : Hardwicke. PIA TE VI
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