COMMON SMOOTH-NEWT. 149 



crack in the cuticle from the legs and feet, but it had 

 slipped off the limbs exactly as a glove would if pulled by 

 the extremities of the fingers, and was not inverted ; in this 

 respect resembling the slough from the tail of the snake 

 and slow-worm, the tail in them being said to slip out of 

 its covering * like a sword out of its scabbard.' 



" The little sheaths of the legs, feet, and toes, were 

 very beautiful, they were almost transparent, excepting 

 the points corresponding to the black markings of the 

 skin ; here they were blackish, and their integrity was 

 so complete that when removed from the basin the 

 water did not run through them, but distended them like 

 tiny gloves. 



" It is singular that the colour of the newt should 

 have been so much altered by merely removing an almost 

 colourless cuticle, but I think that this most probably 

 arose from the partial washing off of the soft rete mucosum 

 on the removal of the harder cuticle ; for certain it is, 

 that the colour of the newt, as I saw it, after it had thrown 

 off the slough, added to the colour of the slough itself 

 would not give the same hue as it exhibited prior to the 

 change. 



"The manner of shedding the epidermis by shreds, which 

 I have repeatedly seen during the spring and summer, 

 never appears to affect for any length of time the 

 colour and general aspect of the newt, simply making the 

 part from which it has come rather lighter for a few 

 hours ; and pieces of epidermis may be seen to peel off the 

 dorsal crest without in any degree altering its form. May 

 not this partial casting off of the cuticle this desquama- 

 tion during the summer be connected with the very 

 abundant growth of epidermis which occurs at this season ? 

 And may not the entire shedding of the slough with the 



