Volume 2

Dissertations relative to the natural history of animals and vegetables / Translated from the Italian of the Abbe Spallanzani ... To which are added two letters from Mr. Bonnet to the author.

  • Spallanzani, Lazzaro, 1729-1799.
Date:
1784
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Dissertations relative to the natural history of animals and vegetables / Translated from the Italian of the Abbe Spallanzani ... To which are added two letters from Mr. Bonnet to the author. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Leeds Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Leeds Library.

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    XLI. Of the whole clafs of frogs and toads with which I am acquainted, none begin their amours fo foon as the fpecies in quef- rion : they are found coupled in the begin- ning of March, and fometimes in February, before all the fnow is melted, and while the water in many places is yet covered with ice. The male being about five times fmaller than the female, cannot nearly bring the toes of his fore feet to meet over the bread:, acircumftance before noticed in the green water-frog (VI). He, however, holds her fo fad, that ihe can by no means difengage herfelf from his em- braces. The females have often got out of the vefiels in which I kept them, and efcaped to a confiderable didance, but the males hill kept their fituation. XLII. The eggs, as well as in toads as frogs, lie at fil'd: in the great facs of the ova- ria, whence they get fir If into the ovidudts, and then into the uterus. In which òf thefe three fituations are they in the female toad with red eyes, and dorfal tubercles, at the be- ginning of her amours ? I have found that they are indeed in the ovaria, but ready to pafs into the ovidudts. Copulation lads till they are difcharged, which happens in ten, twelve, or fourteen, and fometimes twenty days, if the feafon be cold. Such is the ardour of the males, that after the dif- charge is finifhed, and they have quitted the female, they will return to her again, and embrace her for feveral hours. This, how- ever, is not peculiar to toads. I have often feen it happen in frogs. XLIII. The male, during the whole time, makes a kind of grunting noife, which I never