How is the heart situated with regard to the lungs? The heart consists of a lower chamber with thick muscular walls, the tip, called the ventricle, and two upper thin-walled chambers, the right and left auricles. Can you make out these three chambers? The purified blood from the lungs flows into the left auricle, while the venous blood from all over the body laden with its carbon dioxide enters the right auricle. From these two chambers the blood enters the ventricle. Here the pure and impure blood are mixed. From the ventricle the blood enters a large muscular tube on the ventral side of the heart. This is the conus arteriosus, which gives off three branches on each side; the anterior ones, the carotid arteries, supply the head, the next ones, the systemic arteries, or aortæ, carry blood to the rest of the body, while the posterior vessels, the pulmonary arteries, go directly to the lungs and there break up into fine vessels (capillaries) where the carbon dioxide is given off and oxygen is taken from the air. From the lungs the blood returns through the pulmonary vein to the left auricle. Meanwhile the blood which has passed through the systemic arteries and body capillaries is collected again into other vessels going back to the heart; these are the veins, which empty into a large thin-walled reservoir, the sinus venosus, which in turn connects with the right auricle of the heart. Three large veins enter the sinus venosus, namely, two pre-caval veins at the anterior end, and a single post-caval vein at the posterior end. Trace out the larger arteries and veins from the heart to their division into or origin from the smaller vessels.

Technical Note.—Carefully remove the heart together with the lungs. The lungs may be inflated by blowing into them through the laryngo-tracheal chamber with a quill and tying them tightly, after which they should be left for several days to dry. When perfectly dry, sections may be cut through them in various places with a sharp knife, and by this means a very good idea of the simple lung structure of the lower backboned animals can be obtained. With a sharp knife cut the heart open, beginning at the tip (ventricle) and cutting up through the conus arteriosus and the two auricles. Note the valves in the heart which separate the different compartments.

Note on either side of the median line in the dorsal region a pair of reddish glandular bodies (the kidneys). From each kidney trace a tube (ureter) posteriorly toward the region of the anus. The kidneys are the principal excretory organs of the body. The blood which flows through the delicate blood-vessels in the kidney gives up there much of its waste products. These pass out through small tubules of the kidneys into the ureters, which carry the wastes toward the anus. Along one side of each kidney may be seen a yellowish glistening mass, the adrenal body.

In some of the specimens studied, the body cavity may be filled with thousands of little black spherical bodies. These are undeveloped eggs. They are deposited by the mother toad in the water in long strings of transparent jelly, which are usually wound around sticks or plant-stems at the bottom of the pond near the shore. From these eggs the young toads hatch as tadpoles and in their life-history pass through an interesting metamorphosis. (See Chapter [XII].)

Technical Note.—The teacher should be provided with several well-cleaned skeletons of the toad in order that the bones may be carefully studied. Boil in a soap solution a toad from which most of the muscles and skin have been removed (see p. [452]). Leave in this solution until the muscles are quite soft and then pick off all bits of muscles and tissue from the bones. If this is carefully done, the ligaments which bind the bones will be left intact and the skeleton will hold together.

Note that the skeleton (fig. [2]) consists of a head portion which is composed of many bones joined together to form a bony box, the skull; of a series of small segments, the vertebræ, forming the vertebral column, which with the skull forms the axial skeleton; and of the appendicular skeleton, consisting of the bones of the fore and hind limbs. Note that the skull is composed of many bones joined together, some by sutures, while others are fused. Do the limbs attach directly to the axial skeleton? The anterior limbs (arms) articulate with the pectoral or shoulder-girdle. The arms will be seen to be made up of a number of bones placed end to end. Note that the uppermost, the humerus, is attached to the pectoral girdle, while at its lower end it articulates with the radio-ulna. At the lower end of the radio-ulna is a small series of carpal bones which afford attachments for the slender finger-bones, the phalanges or digital bones. The bones of the leg are articulated with a closely fused set of bones, the pelvic girdle. The leg-bones, proceeding from the pelvic girdle, are named femur, tibio-fibula, tarsal bones, and phalanges or digits. To what bones of the arm do these correspond? Determine the other principal bones of the skeleton by reference to figure [2].

Fig. 2.—Skeleton of the garden toad.