HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION 



In a morphological treatise such as the present work it is only neces- 

 sary to outline the history of the relevant anatomical and physiolo- 

 gical literature. Therefore the numerous medieval legends which 

 have condensed around the habits and medical importance of the 

 Salamander, and the extensive literature relating to its alleged 

 resistance to fire, will be disregarded. On this aspect of the subject 

 the investigations of the learned Wurffbain (1683) maybe consulted. 

 A typical example of these fables was the belief that the asbestos 

 fibre, the incombustible nature of which was soon recognized, was 

 the hair of the Salamander, and it was sometimes even referred to as 

 Salamander's wool. 



There are several recognizable figures of S. maculosa^ of varying 

 degrees of excellence, in the earlier treatises on Natural History, such 

 as Mattiolus' Commentary on Dioscorides^ Gesner, Pare, Imperato, 

 Aldrovandus, Perrault, Seba, Owen, and Roesel, of which that of 

 the last-named naturalist hardly exhibits the accuracy of so careful 

 an observer of nature. Of the Amphibia the Frog and Newt were 

 investigated before the Salamander, and much more thoroughly. 

 The earlier workers, however, included a number of species under 

 the term Salamandra, and considered themselves at liberty to ex- 

 pound the anatomy of any one of them without further discrimina- 

 tion. Hence for example Triton would be dissected and described 

 as Salamander, as if the species were anatomically interchangeable. 

 This introduces a difficulty of some importance in the interpretation 

 of the older literature, and especially in those cases where the figures 

 are not sufficiently accurate to make distinction possible. Where, 

 however, the figures are good, as in the case of Monro (1755), no 

 doubt can exist, and Monro is most certainly describing Triton and 

 not the Salamander of his title-page. Jacobaeus also calls Triton a 

 Salamander, and here again the Triton determination is beyond ques- 

 tion. Indeed nearly all the earlier work labelled Salamander seems 

 to be Triton, in spite of the fact that the name Salamandra was applied 

 to the true Salamander from Gesner onwards, and the differences 

 between S. terrestris^ or the large earth Salamander, and S. aquatica, 

 or the small water Salamander (Triton), were usually recognized. 



A statistical survey of the obsolete Salamandra literature shows 

 that most of it is grouped between the years 18 15 and 1850. This 

 grouping coincides almost exactly with that of Amphibian literature 



