ANIMAL REPRODUCTIONS. 367 
It might be fuppofed that the amputation of the 
limbs is moft painful, and that the animals would 
fuffer long and feverely from it :. however, one 
of my obfervations apparently infers the reverfe. 
I cut the left hand and the right foot off a large 
newt, and a ftream of blood, as thick as a hog’s 
briftle, continued {pouting out nearly two mi- 
nutes without intermiffion. Not only did the 
animal feem not in the leaft: enfeebled by the lofs 
of blood, but,. in fearcely a quarter of an hour, 
to my great furprife, it fwallowed two earth 
worms. 
Sometimes. worms are devoured entire, not- 
_ withftanding all their exertions to efcape.. They 
twine round the neck of the newt like.a ferpent s. 
every moment they become fhorter,. and gradu- 
ally difappear, according to the portion which 
enters the body. Thus have I feen a newt fwal- 
low a worm, more than fix inches-long, in lefs- 
than five minutes. 
lil. Spoliation of newts.—It cannot properly be 
faid that newts change their fkin, for it is only 
the epidermis: which is.thrown off (1); at leaft, 
the fpoil is fo thin and tranfparent, that it feems 
to correfpond with an epidermis only. It is of a 
whitiflr 
(1) M. de Fay has already remarked this fa@ in his cu- 
rious memoir on newts, to which I refer the reader. Mem 
del? Acad de Paris, 1729s 
