806 



ANNUAL REGISTER, 1804. 



the hardest bodies cannot resist the 

 violence of fire, the world have en-, 

 deavoiired to make us believe that 

 a small lizard can not only with, 

 stand the flames, but even cxtiu- 

 guisli them. 



As agreeable fables readily gain 

 belief, every one has been eager to 

 adopt that of a small animal so 

 highly privileged, so suporior to 

 the most powerful agent in nature, 

 and which could furnish so many 

 objects of comparison to poetry, so 

 many pretty emblems to love, and 

 so many brilliant devices to valour. 

 The aucients believed this property 

 of the. s.ilamander, wishing that its 

 origin might be as surprising as iis 

 power ; and being desirous of re- 

 alizing the ingenious fictions of (he 

 poets, they have pretended that it 

 owes its existence to the purest of 

 elements, which cannot consume it, 

 and they have called it the daughter 

 of fire*, giving it however a body 

 of ice. The moderns have followed 

 the ridiculous talcs of the ancients, 

 and as it is diflicult to stop when 

 one has passed the bounds of pro- 

 bability, some have gone so far as 

 to think that the most violent . fire 

 could be extinguished by the land 

 salamander. Quacks sold this small 

 lizard, affirming that when thrown 

 into the greatest confiagration, it 

 would check its progress. It was 

 Tcry necessary that philosophers and 

 naturalists should take the trouble 

 to prove, by fa6ts, wliat reason 

 alone might have demonstrated ; and 

 it was not till after the light of 

 science was diffused abroad, that 

 the world gave over believing in this 

 wonderful property of the sala- 

 pjander. 



This lizard, which is fouxid in so 



many countries of the ancient world, 

 and even in very high latitudes, has 

 been, however, very little noticed, 

 because it is seldom seen out of its 

 hole, and because for a long time it 

 has inspired much terror. Even 

 Aristotle speaks of it as of aa 

 ar.im.il with which he was scarcely 

 acqv.ainted. 



It is easy to distinguish this li., 

 zard froji all others, by the par- 

 ticular conformation of its fore feet, 

 which have only four toes, while 

 those behind have five. One of the 

 largest of this species, preserved in 

 the king's cabinet, is seven inches 

 five lines in length, from the end of 

 the muzzle to the root of the tail, 

 which is three inches eight lines. 

 The skin does not appear to be co- 

 vered with r^cales, but it is furnished 

 with a number of excrescences, like 

 teats, containing a great many holes, 

 several of which may be very plainly 

 distinguished by the naked eye, and 

 through which a kind of milk 

 oozes that generally spreads itself in 

 such a manner as to form a trans- 

 parent coat of varnish above the 

 skin of this oviparous quadruped, 

 naturally dry. 



The eyes of the salamander are 

 placed in the upper part of the 

 licad, which is a little fiatted ; their 

 orbit projefts into the interior part 

 of the palate, and is there almost 

 surrounded by a row of very small 

 teeth, like those in the jaw bones: 

 these teeth establish a near relation 

 between lizards and fishes ; many 

 species of which have also several 

 teeth placed in the bottom of the 

 mouth. The colour of this lizard 

 is very dark ; upon the belly it has 

 a bluish cast, intermixed with pretty 

 large irregular yellow spots, whiph 



Conrad Gesner de quadrupcdlbus oviparis, de Salamaudra, p. 70. 



cxtciid 



