177 



AMPHIBIA. 



AMPHIBIA. 



178 



Lis.Hjtriton punctatuf, seen from above, 

 a, Male, the toes of whose hind-feet are fur. 

 Dished in the breeding season with a black- 

 spotted membrane, in the act of lashing his 

 tail ; , female. 



either of gills or of branchial apertures. It respired atmospheric air 

 only, and having arrived at ita perfect state, made strong efforts to 

 escape from the vessel in ^ 



which it had undergone 

 its metamorphosis. 



In its complete state 

 this species habitually 

 lives in the water, and 

 is seldom to be found on 

 land unless the pond 

 which has been its abode 

 is dried up, and the 

 animal finds itself 

 obliged to walk in search 

 of another. 



The development of 

 the Common Smooth 

 Newt (Laiotriton punc- 

 tatui, Bell ; Triton pvnc- 

 tatut, Auct. ; Triton 

 palttitris, Laur. ; Sala- 

 mandra pvmctata, Daud. ; 

 Mo/ye punctata, Merr. ; 

 Salamandra exigua, 

 Ruse.; and Brown Lizard 

 of Pennant) was also ob- 

 served by Rusconi ; but 

 it did not require parti- 

 cular notice, being very 

 similar to that of Triton 

 criitatui. Triton punc- 

 tatui, however, showed 

 itself much the more 

 brisk animal of the two ; 

 and the lashings of the tail of the male in his approaches to the 

 female were much more rapid. 



Salamandra. 



Head thick ; eyes large ; gape of the moutk ample ; tongue broad - r 

 palatine teeth arranged in two long series ; parotids large ; body 

 sprinkled with many small glands ; toes free ; tail rather smooth. 



Example, Salamandra maculosa, Laur. 



This species is black with yell o w spots, and has numerous prominent 

 warty excrescences on the sides ; tongue very large ; palatine teeth 

 spatuliform - r toes smooth. 



This is the Salamandra of Gesnur ; Salamandra terratrii of 

 Aldrovand**, Ray, and others - r Salamandre de Terre of the French ; 

 and Gefleckte Erd-Salamander of the Germans. 



It inhabits Central Europe and the mountainous parts of the south 

 of Europe. 



The Land Salamander, unlike the Tritons, is ovoviviparous, though 

 the young at first inhabit the water and undergo metamorphoses till 

 they arrive at the mature state which fits them for living upon land, 

 where they haunt cool and moist places, being not (infrequently found 

 about fallen timber or old walls. Their food principally consists of 

 insects, worms, and small molluscous animals. In the winter they 

 retire to some hollow tree or hole in an old wall, or even in the ground, 

 where they coil themselves up, and remain in a torpid state till the 

 spring again calls them forth. 



The body of the Salamander is largely covered with warty glands. 

 These secrete a milky fluid of a glutinous and acrid nature like that 

 of the toad, which, if not capable of affecting the larger and more 

 highly-organised animals, appears to be a destructive agent to some 

 of those which are less highly organised. Thus Laurenti provoked 

 two gray lizards to bite a Salamander, which at first attempted to 

 escape from- them, but being still persecuted ejected some of this fluid 

 into their mouths ; one of the lizards died instantly, and the other 

 fell into convulsions for two minutes, and then expired. Some of 

 this juice WB introduced into the mouth of another lizard ; it 

 became convulsed, was paralytic on the whole of one side, and soon, 

 died. 



This is the only foundation for the long-cherished notion that the 

 Salamander was one of the most venomous of animals. Nicander, in 

 hia ' Alexipharmaca,' gives an appalling picture of the symptoms pro- 

 duced by ita bite. The Romans looked on it with horror, at most 

 destructive ; and considered it as deadly a part of the poisoner's 

 laboratory as aconite or hemlock. Hence came a proverb that he 

 who was bitten by a Salamander had need of as many physicians as 

 the animal had spot* ; and another still more hopeless : " If a Sala- 

 mander bites you, put on your shroud." 



Not only was its bite considered fatal and the administration of the 

 animal itself taken internally believed to be deadly, but anything that 

 its saliva had touched was said to become poisonous. Thus, if it crept 

 over an apple-tree, it was supposed to poison all the frnit with its 

 saliva ; and even herbs on which the fluid fell were believed to affect 

 those who tasted them with vomiting. These fables had taken such 

 strong hold, that it was thought worthy of record in the ' Acta Acad. 

 Nat. Cur." that a man had eaten a Salamander, which his wife had put 



KAT. HIST. DIV. VOL. I. 



into his food in the hope of becoming a widow, without suffering any 

 inconvenience. 



But the grand absurdity of all was the belief that the Salamander 

 was incombustible ; that it not only resisted the action of fire, but 

 extinguished it ; and, when it saw the flame, charged it aa an enemy 

 which it well knew how to vanquish. 



Aristotle, whose Salamandra (o-aAu/^cSpa) this appears to be, has 

 been quoted as giving his sanction to thia belief, and indeed he citea 

 it as a proof that there are animals over which flame has no power : 

 " the Salamandra, aa they Bay, when it goes through fire, extinguishes 

 it." (' Hist. An., r v. 19.) Now this is evidently only a reference to 

 report ; and it is not improbable that a copious secretion of the fluid 

 above noticed might, in a rapid and short passage, so damp the fire 

 that the animal might get through comparatively unhurt. jElian 

 fii. 31) says not only that it will live in the flames, but that it attacks 

 fire like an enemy. Nicander, Dioscorides, and Pliny all add their 

 authority ; and the latter not onlyrelates that they extinguish fire by 

 their touch, but that they are without sex and produce nothing. He 

 dwells on their poison as being of the worst description, and is profuse 

 in hia catalogue of remedies. (' Hist. Nat.,' xxix. 4.) But even so 

 late as 1789 there was an attempt to revive these wondroua tales. A 

 French consul at Rhodes relatea that, while sitting in his chamber 

 there, he heard a loud cry in his kitchen, whither he ran and found 

 his cook in a horrible fright, who informed him that he had seen the 

 devil in the fire. M. Pothonier then states that he looked into a 



Salamandra maculosa, seen from above, a, profile of head.. 



bright fire, and there saw a little animal with open mouth and palpi- 

 tating throat. He took the tongs and endeavoured to secure it. At 

 his first attempt the animal, which he says had been motionless up to 

 that time (two or three minutes), ran into a corner of the chimney, 

 having lost the tip of its tail in escaping, and buried itself in a heap 

 of hot ashes. In his second attempt the consul was successful drew 



N 



