xiv HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION 



generally of the same period, which would indicate that the research 

 of the time was focused on the phylum as a whole and not on any 

 particular member of it.^ 



Aristotle, to whom the terrestrial Salamander must have been well 

 known, and who named it UaXanavSpa, does not deal with the anatomy 

 of the species. Schneider has suggested that Aristotle's KopBvXos may 

 have been an aquatic or a larval Amphibian, and von Siebold actually 

 refers to the larval Salamander as Cordylus, but Leuckart (1823) 

 rightly questions the accuracy of this determination. Albertus 

 Magnus identifies the Salamander with the SteUio of ancient authors 

 — the only justification for which seems to be its poisonous nature 

 and the spots on its back. 



Belon (1553) appears to have been the first observer to discover 

 the viviparous nature of the Salamander, which, he says, like all 

 vipers, brings forth its young alive. According to Gesner (copied by 

 Aldrovandus and Wurffbain) Belon found that the larvae, to the 

 number of forty to fifty, were born without any foetal membranes, 

 but the latter passage has not been traced in any of Belon's works. 

 Gesner (1554) is the first author to mention S. atra. He says that 

 there is a dull black Salamander in the Alps similar in form to the 

 spotted Salamander, and secreting the same white fluid from the 

 skin, but with a short tail. He adds that Salamandra is the only one 

 of its kind to exhibit intra-uterine fertilization. Goiter (1575), the 

 first comparative anatomist after Aristotle, describes the skeleton of 

 the Lizard in some detail, and he has also investigated the skeleton 

 of the Salamander, which he says is similar to that of the Lizard. The 

 first confirmation of Belon's discovery comes from Dalecampius 

 (1587). In commenting on Pliny's statement that Salamanders have 

 no sex and are not the result of normal generation, he says that a 

 battered Salamander exuded from all parts of its body a milky 

 venom, and from the ruptured abdomen there emerged over thirty 

 ova, and more than thirty foetuses, which swam actively in water. 

 He also dissected a pregnant female which was full of eggs and 

 foetuses, some of which were incompletely developed, but others 

 were quite advanced and were able to move and swim in water. He 

 therefore concludes that it is false to say, as Pliny does, that Salaman- 

 ders are generated from nothing. Imperato (1599) carries the same 

 subject farther. He claims that Salamanders pair like Vipers, and 

 at the time of bringing forth they congregate in the neighbourhood 

 of ditches, and await the time of rainfall. They then enter the water, 

 and discharge their foetuses in one day to the number of from 

 ^ Cf. Cole and Eales, Science Progress, xi, Fig. 6, 19 17. 



