362 A TRIAD OF MEDIEVAL MYTHS. 



Amongst the ancient salamandriiie beliefs must be noticed 

 that it had a depilatory power. Thus, adverting to this belief. 

 Martial wrote as follows : 



' Desine jam, Lalage, tristes ornare capillos, 

 Tangat et insanum nulla puella caput : 

 Hoc salamandra notet, vel sseva novacula nudet, 

 Ut digna speculo fiat imago tua.' 



Salamanders' hearts worn as amulets w r ere considered to 

 be preventive against fire. Portions of the creature so repu- 

 tedly poisonous were also used in medicine to cure leprosy. 

 The alchemists also believed in salamandriiie powers of trans- 

 mutation. Hence these wretched reptiles, being placed in 

 crucibles, and the latter heated on the coals ? quicksilver was 

 poured upon them until they died. To what extent the poi- 

 sonous nature of the reptile was credited, may be inferred 

 from the prevalence of the concurrent belief that the experi- 

 ment was attended with danger to the operator. 



Throughout these observations, I have written of the 

 salamander as if under some certainty of its existence, which 

 is more than I was enabled to do in respect of the basilisk. 

 Indeed, the salamander is recognised by modern naturalists 

 to have a present existence, in so far as the name is applied 

 to a certain lacertine animal which may be occasionally pur- 

 chased in London for the ornamentation of glass cases. It 

 is a small creature, only a few inches long, wholly devoid of 

 poisonous qualities, as indeed all lizards are, and its powers 

 of resisting fire are of a moderate degree only, as will be 

 gathered from the recitals to follow. We shall soon see from 

 what small matters of fact large inferences may spring. 



In the Philosophical Transactions , vol. i. p. 377, the fol- 

 lowing record appears : ' This came from that expert ana- 

 tomist, M. Steno, to Dr. Croon Videl : that a knight called 

 Corvini had assured him, that having cast a salamander, 

 brought by him out of the Indies, into the fire, the animal 

 thereupon swelled presently, and then vomited store of thick 



