130 SALAMANDRADA. 
Ir an instance were wanting to exemplify the obvious 
fallacy of the opinion that external form is alone sufficient 
to indicate the relations of animals, it would be impossible 
to select one more striking and remarkable than that of the 
tailed Amphibia; and it is certainly not a little extraordi- 
nary that Linneus himself, notwithstanding the acuteness 
which generally enabled him to pierce through the fal- 
lacious indications offered by external appearance, and to 
seize upon the true relations of individuals and groups 
without being misled, like most others of his day, by form 
alone, should in this instance have failed to detect the 
latent affinities of the group, and to appreciate the relative 
value of its characters. A want of more accurate know- 
ledge, or, perhaps, a degree of timidity arising from the 
novelty of the position which he took, prevented this great 
man from always following out the principles which his 
genius impelled him to adopt, and doubtless led him to 
the inconsistencies with which he has been too severely and 
indiscriminately charged. Be that as it may, he certainly, 
in the present instance, not only searched not below the 
surface, but failed even to appreciate the importance of the 
character of the skin itself; a reference to which, and to 
several peculiarities in external structure, might have led 
him to suspect, at least, the relations which this part bears 
to that of the tailless Amphibia, and especially of the Frogs. 
The generic form to which the present species belongs, 
exhibits all the characters of the Amphibia in as striking a 
point of view as either of those which have been already 
mentioned, The naked and respirable skin, and the com- 
pleteness of the transformation, are not less obvious in the 
present than in the former group. The whole of them are 
characterised also by an elongated body, by the existence 
of four legs, and by an aquatic life. 
