SALAMANDER. 



581 



many of our modern compilers, and not a spring 

 pouring forth its own waters of folly. But, as is the 

 case to this day with compilers of facts and statements 

 in natural history, who do not understand, and, there- 

 fore cannot appreciate the science of the subject, he 

 appears to have had the stronger desire that a state- 

 ment should be true, the more widely that it differed 

 from common observation and experience. He gravely 

 says, that by passing over and possessing the whole 

 vegetation, a single salamander could speedily exter- 

 minate nations : now as we shall see afterwards, the 

 salamander spends the greater part of its time in a 

 state of perfect repose ; that when it does move, its 

 motions are very slow, and the space to which they 

 are confined is exceedingly limited, and that, in short, 

 the supposed poisonous exudation of its skin, by 

 means of which it is said to have triumphed over the 

 utmost intensity of fires, and extinguished all other 

 kinds of life over extensive districts, is really nothing 

 more than a very simple means of defence given to it 

 against such enemies as attack so helpless a crea- 

 ture in its humble abodes. 



It is generally understood, that the principal fables 

 related of the salamander had their origin in the fer- 

 tile imaginations of the ancient Greeks imaginations 

 which produced flowers in great abundance, and often 

 of exquisite beauty, but of which the fruit was scanty 

 and of most inferior quality. It was a habit with them 

 to erect every thing of which they understood but 

 little, either into a god or a devil, according as the 

 multiplication of the one or the other happened to be 

 more fashionable ; and of course the salamander, all 

 fire-proof as it was, was the very best subject that could 

 be imagined for making a devil of; we may add, that 

 it would have answered just as well with those modern 

 Hadestical theorists, who will be satisfied with nothing 

 short of material fire and substantial brimstone, as 

 fitting instruments of torture for immaterial and im- 

 mortal spirits. This fable is a more gross as well as 

 a more mischievous absurdity than that of the sala- 

 mander, though perhaps it has the same origin. It 

 may not be amiss to remark in passing, that the allu- 

 sions to the burnings of Tophet and Gehenna, which 

 are drawn from the Old Testament, are all made to 

 the burning of dead bodies, or of children or other 

 victims who were burned alive in the horrid sacrifices 

 to the Syrian idols. There is little doubt that these 

 were subsequently mixed up with much of Grecian 

 fable ; and that the salamander has its share in those 

 ridiculous and most unholy doctrines which still con- 

 tinue to be preached up for the purpose of terrifying 

 the ignorant. 



The belief in the marvellous accounts of the 

 salamander is now, however, in a great measure 

 confined to those visionaries ; because the dissec- 

 tions of the anatomists and the reasonings of the 

 physiologists have established the proper place of the 

 animal in nature, and proved how helpless and how 

 perfectly harmless a thing it is, notwithstanding all 

 that has been said concerning it. They have thus 

 spoiled quackery, both physical and metaphysical, of 

 what was once one of its most powerful engines. 

 Quackery invariably laid hold of every thing that 

 really was, or could by artifice be, made an object of 

 terror or any other strong emotion to the multitude. 

 If it had deadly power to any extent, it was sure to 

 have healing power to the same extent imputed to it. 

 Accordingly the salamander was described as being 

 capable of extinguishing the most violent conflagra- 



tions ; so much so, that a basket full, of salamanders 

 would have quenched Etna itself. Its medical vir- 

 tues were equally wonderful, and the most burning 

 malady with which human nature could be assailed, 

 vanished at the presence of the all-potent salamander. 

 These and many other stories equally marvellous and 

 ridiculous, have vanished before the light of modern 

 science ; and the salamander may be considered as 

 now belonging only to natural history, and of no 

 value or interest in any other respect or point of view. 



Some naturalists consider the land and the water 

 salamanders as separate genera or subgenera ; and 

 they appear to be justified in this view on account of 

 the structure, the physiology, and the habits of the 

 animals. The land ones, which are the proper sala- 

 manders, as being those upon which the ancient fables 

 were founded, retain the name salamander, and triton 

 is given to the aquatic ones. We shall consider them 

 separately ; but though there are several species of 

 each division, their manners are so obscure and void of 

 popular interest, that one or two of each will be sufficient. 



LAND SALAMANDERS (Salamandra). These in 

 their perfect state have the tail round, and not at all 

 adapted for swimming. They are ovoviviparous, 

 or bring their eggs to maturity internally, but the 

 young are dropped in the water, and pass their tad- 

 pole state in that element ; but this state is much 

 shorter in them than it is in those oviparous Batra- 

 chia, the eggs of which are hatched in the water. 

 They are found in various parts of Europe, of Asia, 

 and of North America, but never in either of the ex- 

 tremes of climate, and they live in great seclusion. 

 The American ones are more numerous than those 

 of the eastern continent, but they are less known. 

 They are said to want the two glands on the sides of 

 the nape similar to those in toads, which are found in 

 the European species. 



COMMON SALAMANDER (5. maculosa). This spe- 

 cies is black, marked with large yellow spots rather 

 bright in the colour. On the sides there are ranges 

 of tubercles, from which, when the creature is alarmed, 

 it ejects a milky fluid to the distance of several inches. 

 This fluid has an offensive smell and an acrid taste, 

 and is understood to be very annoying, if not deadly, 

 to weak animals ; but it is not a poison to animals of 

 any considerable size. It is subject to considerable 

 varieties of size and also of colour. Its abodes are 

 all of the most solitary and gloomy character. In 

 the moist earth, and in tufts of vegetation by the 

 margins of marshy pools in upland woods, in holes of 

 the earth under stones, in ruined buildings, and in all 

 places which have a moderate temperature and are 

 damp. The greater part of its time is spent under 

 ground, and it never comes abroad in the sun during 

 summer, while in winter it remains under ground 

 in a state of unbroken repose ; and when they 

 are in this state, there are not unfrequently num- 

 bers of them twined together. Its movement is 

 very slow and heavy ; and, instead of being cou- 

 rageous which the fables represent it to be, it is 

 passive almost to stupidity, neither facing danger nor 

 flying from it, but discharging its acrid fluid in cases 

 of necessity. Its food consists of flies, worms, small 

 mollusca, and other little animals, and sometimes it 

 is said even of mud ; and as it attacks, and can attack, 

 no animal of any considerable size, it is said to be in 

 itself free from attacks, as the other animals which 

 frequent the same haunt with it are said to partake 

 in that aversion in which it is held by human beings. 



