VIPERS. 69 



an amphibious bipes from South Carolina, that the 

 water- eft, or newt, is only the larva of the land -eft, 

 as tadpoles are of frogs. Lest I should be suspected 

 to misunderstand his meaning, I shall give it in his 

 own words. Speaking of the opercula, or coverings 

 to the gills of the mud inguana, he proceeds to 

 say, that "The form of these pennated coverings 

 approaches very near to what I have some time ago 

 observed in the larva, or aquatic state of our English 

 lacerta, known by the name of eft, or newt, which 

 serve them for coverings to their gills, and for fins 

 to swim with while in this state ; and which they 

 lose, as well as the fins of their tails, when they 

 change their state, and become land animals, as I 

 have observed, by keeping them alive for some time 

 myself."* 



Linnaeus, in his Sy sterna Nature, hints at what 

 Mr. Ellis advances, more than once. 



Providence has been so indulgent to us as to allow 

 of but one venqmous reptile of the serpent kind in 

 these kingdoms, and that is the viper. As you pro- 

 pose the good of mankind to be an object of your 

 publications, you will not omit to mention common 

 salad oil as a sovereign remedy against the bite of 

 the viper. As to the blind worm, (anguis fragilis , so 

 called because it snaps in sunder with a small blow,) 



* Mr. Ellis is right. The young of the triton palustris and 

 aquations of Fleming, salamandra exigua and platycauda of 

 Dr. Rusconi, remain in a tadpole, or comparatively imperfect 

 state, for some time after exclusion from the egg, and undergo 

 several metamorphoses previous to arriving at maturity. Dr. 

 Rusconi says, the young of salamandra platycauda is not 

 capable to reproduce for three years. See some very inter- 

 esting information upon the transformation of these animals, 

 in a long paper published at Pavia by Mauro Rusconi, on the 

 natural history and structure of the aquatic salamander. 

 W.J. 



