C6 A TEIAD OF MEDIAEVAL MYTHS. 



enter the oven, and remained there two or three minutes, 

 marking the rise of the mercury. The point of its elevation 

 was no less than 100 degrees Reaumur* almost equivalent 

 to 260 degrees of Fahrenheit. M. Tillet began to be alarmed 

 for the safety of the girl ; but she assured him that she felt 

 no inconvenience, and remained in the oven ten minutes 

 longer, during which the mercury reached the 288th degree 

 of Fahrenheit scale : no less than 76 above the point of boiling 

 water. 



It seems, then, that all that portentous myth which refers 

 to the ability of the salamander to live in flame, is referable 

 to the fact that all lizards but perhaps the salamandrine 

 lizards in especial evolve, when heated or otherwise irritated, 

 a copious moisture from the skin. 



Coming now to the poisonous allegation, to find a con- 

 sistent theory is more difficult. Assuredly the salamandrine 

 lizard is not poisonous; indeed, to generalise, no lizard is 

 poisonous. Still, the idea that lizards are poisonous very 

 widely prevails even in England, and at the present time. 

 An English rustic will as soon touch a viper as a poor hedge- 

 eft. He believes this small lizard to be poisonous equally 

 with the common snake and the slow-worm (anguis fragilis). 

 So obstinately do preconceptions linger where they have once 

 been entertained. 



* The thermometric graduation of Eeaumur is now very little used. 

 According to it the freezing-point of water is or zero, the boiling-point 

 80. Fahrenheit's graduation makes the freezing-point 32, and the boiling- 

 point 212. The Celsius or centigrade scale is now mostly used by scientific 

 men. Its freezing-point is 0, and its boiling-point 100. To convert Eeau- 

 mur degrees to Fahrenheit degrees, proceed according to the following for- 

 mula : 



E. X | + 32 = F. 



To convert centigrade degrees to Fahrenheit degrees adopt the formula 

 subjoined : 



C. X + 32 = F. 



