582 



SALAMANDER. 



It does not appear to have any voice, at all events 

 it utters no cry, and indeed it has very little of the 

 action possessed by ordinary land animals. Though 

 the young inhabit the water for a short time, the 

 mature animals are very impatient of that element. 

 When put into water.it makes more vigorous attempts 

 to get out than it seems capable of upon any other 

 occasion ; and if it is prevented from getting out, it 

 rises much more frequently to breathe than would be 

 supposed of an animal in which the development of 

 life seems so imperfect, and its action so languid. 



The seat of greatest sensibility in the salamander 

 appears to be the skin ; for all the rest of it partakes 

 of that endurance which is common to the cold- 

 blooded animals. It is not easily killed by mecha- 

 nical means, but the application of almost any stimulus 

 to the skin affects it powerfully. Vinegar or salt 

 throws it into convulsions ; and extremes of heat and 

 cold, or of drought and moisture, appear to be equally 

 annoying to it. The specific effect of these is not 

 well ascertained ; but that they affect the animal 

 more than it is affected by any thing else is certain, 

 because it bears equally ill the opposite extremes of 

 season and of climate, both of which send it to its 

 hiding places, and both perhaps, when pushed to 

 great lengths, render it inactive. 



In many respects the genus differ from all other 

 animals ; and though they are still pretty generally 

 distributed, though but rarely seen, they really seem 

 to be creatures fitted for a different state of the eco- 

 nomy of the earth's surface from that which now 

 exists. There are many peculiarities in their struc- 

 ture, and not the least remarkable is the extreme 

 smallness of the brain, the diameter of which is really 

 less than that of the sp ; nal marrow; this last consists 

 of two distinct chords, in the one of which the ex- 

 treme sensibility of the skin is perhaps concentrated, 

 and probably the muscular energy of the body in the 

 other. The smallness of the brain, as a definite part 

 of the nervous centre or foundation of the animal, is 

 a strong corroboration of the generally supposed and 

 nearly demonstrated hypothesis that the brain of an 

 animal is always well formed in proportion as the 

 organs of the localised senses are well developed, and 

 of equal acuteness. One sense may be pretty keen, 

 though the brain is small ; but we believe there is 

 scarcely an instance of an animal with a very small 

 brain being perfect in all those senses which have 

 their organs situated in the head. When we speak 

 of senses which have particular organs, the eye is the 

 one which claims our first and chief attention. In 

 the salamander the eye is very different from that of 

 land animals generally, and even from those of toads 

 and frogs. Though much less aquatic in its habits 

 than the frog, and though understood to have passed 

 through its transformations before it is committed to 

 the water by its parent, for the brief period that it 

 remains in that element, the eye of the salamander 

 bears a very striking resemblance to that of a fish. 

 The ball is so fixed as that it cannot turn, and the 

 skin completely covers the eye so that only the corner 

 h visible. Of course, there is no lachrymal apparatus, 

 the eye having no use for tears to wash, as it is 

 covered by the undivided though transparent skin. 

 The cornea is very transparent, but the coats of the 

 eye are irregular in their thickness and form, and 

 the central part of the crystalline lens, which is albu- 

 minous, hardens by boiling like that of a fish. 



The organs of hearing bear a considerable resem- 



blance in their general structure to those of the carti- 

 laginous fishes with fixed gills ; and it is not a little 

 remarkable that an animal which, in its adult state, is 

 very impatient of water, and which spends but little 

 of its early life in that element, should have so many 

 points of resemblance to the fishes. Below the skin 

 and the muscles, there is a cartilaginous operculum 

 to the ear of a rhomboidal shape. Within this there 

 is a cavity lined with a greyish pulp, and containing 

 a rudiment of a tympanal bone, but no definite tym- 

 panum. Within this there are cavities and laby- 

 rinths ; but still the ear is a very imperfect one. The 

 organ of smell appears to be the best developed, the 

 nostrils are far apart from each other, and their coni- 

 cal tubes are pretty copiously supplied with nerves. 

 The tongue is short and thick, having but little mo- 

 tion, and copiously supplied with a mucous secretion ; 

 but it is not understood that the sense of taste is very 

 acute. The teeth are prehensile only, and not at all 

 adapted for bruising or dividing the food. Little 

 further is known of the sense of what is usually called 

 touch than the extreme sensibility of the skin, and 

 the muscular sense cannot be very strong in so dull 

 an animal. 



The form of the skull is nearly that of a cylinder, 

 enlarged in the anterior part, and with two lateral 

 projections which contain the ears. The bones of 

 the head present many peculiarities, but they are not 

 susceptible of popular description. The posterior 

 part of the skull has two condyles, with the hole for 

 the spinal marrow between them ; and they are fitted 

 to two cavities in the first vertebra of the spine. The 

 vertebrae have their posterior surfaces convex. There 

 are fourteen from the skull to the sacrum, and a vari- 

 able number in the tail, often more than double that 

 in the other parts. The spinous processes are a 

 mere crest, and no part of the body is so formed as 

 to admit of any powerful motion. The pelvis is 

 suspended by cartilages to the fifteenth or sixteenth 

 vertebra, but there is in no instance any bony con- 

 nexion between this part and the spine, so that the 

 hind legs have but little firmness. The articulation 

 of the fore leg at the shoulder is supported by three 

 bones, but they are so closely united as to seem only 

 one. The blade-bone ascends toward the spine, and 

 the coracoid-bone and the clavicle, united by a suture, 

 are directed downwards. The glenoid cavity for re- 

 ceiving the head of the humerus is on the posterior edge, 

 so that the joint is badly situated as well as badly 

 supported for motion, and it is confined within a 

 limited range by processes. There are two bones in 

 the fore arm, the one placed over the other ; five 

 bones and two cartilages in the wrist ; and four in 

 the metacarpus. The first toe has only one phalange 

 of bone, the second and fourth two, and the third 

 three. Altogether, the bones of the fore feet are 

 very imperfect. The bones of the hind feet are 

 better made out in some parts ; but the connexion 

 with the spine is loose, and they are capable of only 

 very slow motion. The head of the femur or thigh- 

 bone is oval, and therefore has its principal motion 

 in one plane only ; and there are processes to stop 

 its motions much in the same way as in the articu- 

 lation of the shoulder; the under extremity of 

 it is flattened and broad. Both the tibia and the 

 fibula are thick and strong, though the former rather 

 tapers toward its lower extremity, and is longer than 

 the other. The tarsus consists of nine bones, and 

 the metatarsus of five, and this is the part which is so 



