1895-96-] Popular Delusions ill Natural History. 171 



we shall confine ourselves to the Urodeles or long-tailed 

 Amphibia. The water-newts, or asks, poor things, have long 

 been supposed to be poisonous, but the most remarkable thing 

 with which they have been credited is getting into the human 

 stomach by being drunk in a draught of water, and, once in, 

 setting themselves up as internal parasites, and having a good 

 time at the expense of the unfortunate host. Some years ago, 

 indeed, I remember seeing a case quoted from an American 

 paper of a woman who was for some time troubled with an 

 unpleasant guest of this sort. The great interest lies, how- 

 ever, in how to dislodge him; and the method advised in the 

 part of the country where I was born is, I see, quite the same 

 as that which Mr Frank Buckland, in his ' Curiosities of 

 Natural History,' mentions as having been had recourse to 

 in Lancashire. The patient was to eat very salt food and 

 drink no water, and then go and lie down beside a running 

 stream with his mouth open, when the ask, tormented by 

 thirst, would crawl up his throat and run down to the water 

 to drink. Then was the time to seize him and kill him. 



Passing now to the class Eeptilia, we find of course many 

 curious ideas concerning snakes and snake-like forms. Every 

 one knows that the harmless snake-like lizard of our own 

 country, generally known as the blind-worm (Anguis fragilis), 

 is subjected to ceaseless persecution by the country people 

 under the fixed delusion that it is poisonous like an adder. 

 But one of the most extraordinary myths regarding animals 

 is that of the American " joint-snake," usually supposed to be 

 the Ophisaurus ventralis, or glass-snake — -a footless lizard allied 

 to our blind-worm. It is now a good many years ago since a 

 gentleman speaking with a strong American accent called on 

 me at the Museum, and after telling me that he had been 

 much pleased with our collections, and that he would be glad 

 to help us by sending specimens of Natural History from 

 Florida, in which state he was an orange-planter — " Ah," said 

 he, " I know what would please you ; you would like to have 

 a joint-snake ! " Then he proceeded to give me a full account 

 of this joint-snake, describing it as a snake which, if struck 

 with a stick, divided into six or seven pieces. If the pieces 

 were now allowed to lie on the ground without further disturb- 

 ance, in a few minutes the piece fitting on behind the head-piece 



