148 SALAMANDRADA. 
“During the latter part of the month of August of the 
present year (1848) I kept a little male newt—Lissotriton 
punctatus—in a basin of clear water, quite alone. 
“The markings of the skin of the newt at this time 
were bright and distinct, and the dorsal crest was deep. 
At eight o’clock, on the morning of the 30th, I noticed 
that it was particularly dull and would scarcely move on 
being touched, and I feared that it was going to die from 
its confinement and want of food: it was very thin, but 
its epidermic covering had undergone no change, and its 
summer dress was as bright as ever. Upon again looking 
at the little animal at eleven o’clock, I found that it had 
assumed the colours and form of the newt in the winter, 
approximating those of the female, and in the water its 
entire exuvium was floating about so thin and trans- 
lucent as to look a mere film, but still quite perfect, ex- 
cepting the fissure by which the body had emerged. 
“The newt was now of a brown colour and the black 
spots on its surface less distinct ; the dorsal crest, which 
before was deep, was merely represented by a ridge, and 
the tail had diminished by one-third of its vertical depth, 
this decrease being principally on its dorsal surface. The 
integument was very thin, the cutaneous blood-vessels 
being quite apparent through it. It was very active and 
swam about the basin with renewed life and vigour. The 
slough was a perfect cast of the whole body, limbs and 
tail; it was quite entire and not torn or broken in any 
part, excepting that it had been split straight down the 
middle line on the ventral surface, from the symphysis of 
the lower jaw to the point of the tail, and had thus simply 
peeled off the body, beginning from the belly and passing 
off the sides and then from the back taking away the 
dorsal erest. It is remarkable that there was no fissure or 
