'10 



A HISTORY OF 



philanthropic ; sometimes smooth and even ; 

 sometimes with a long slender tail ; and often 

 with a shorter blunt one. 1 



But their greatest distinction arises from the 

 manner of bringing forth their young. First, 

 some of them are viviparous. Secondly, some 

 are oviparous ; and which may be considered 

 in three distinct ways. Thirdly, some bring 

 forth small spawn, like fishes. The Crocodile, 

 the Iguana, and all the larger kinds, bring 

 forth oggs, which are hatched by the heat of 

 the sun ; the animals that issue from them are 

 complete upon leaving the shell ; and their 

 first efforts are to run to seek food in their 

 proper element, The viviparous kinds, in 

 which are all the salamanders, come forth alive 

 from the body of the female, perfect and ac- 

 tive, and suffer no succeeding change. But 

 those which arc bred in the water, and, as we 

 have reason to think, from spawn, suffer a very 

 considerable change in their form. They are 

 produced with an external skin or covering, 

 that sometimes encloses their feet, and gives 

 them a serpentine appearance. To this false 

 skin fins are added, above and below the tail, 

 that serve the animal for swimming ; but 

 when the false skin drops off, these drop 

 off also ; and then the lizard, with its four 

 feet, is completely formed, and forsakes the 

 water, 



From hence it appears, that of this tribe 

 there are three distinct kinds, differently pro- 

 duced, and most probably very different in 

 their formation. But the history of these ani- 

 mals is very obscure ; and we are as yet inca- 

 pable of laying the line that separates them. 

 All we know, as was said before, is, that the 

 great animals of this kind are mostly produced 

 perfect from the egg ; the salamanders are 

 generally viviparous ; and some of the water 

 lizards imperfectly produced. Jn all these 



The whole of this tribe is perfectly destitute of poi- 

 son, and, except the crocodile and alligator, quite inoffen- 



most unfinished productions of nature, if I 

 may so call them, the varieties in their struc- 

 ture increase in proportion to their imperfec- 

 tions. A poet would say, that nature grew 

 tired of the nauseous formation, and left acci- 

 dent to finish the rest of her handy-work. 



However, the three kinds have many points 

 of similitude ; and, in all their varieties of 

 figure, colour, and production, this tribe is 

 easily distinguished, and strongly marked. 

 They have all four short legs ; the two fore- 

 feet somewhat resembling a man's hand and 

 arm. They have tails almost as thick as the 

 body at the beginning, and that generally run 

 tapering to a point. They are all amphibious 

 also ; equally capable of living upon land and 

 water ; and formed internally in the same 

 manner with the tortoise, and other animals, 

 that can continue a long time without respira- 

 tion : in other words, their lungs are not so 

 necessary to continue life and circulation, but 

 that their play may be stopped for some con* 

 siderable time, while the blood performs its 

 circuit round the body by a shorter communi-> 

 cation. 



These are differences that sufficiently sepa- 

 rate lizards from all other animals; but it will 

 be very difficult to fix the limits that distin- 

 guish the three kinds from each other. The 

 crocodile tribe, and its affinities, are sufficiently 

 distinguished from all the rest by their size 

 and fierceness ; the salamander tribe is distin- 

 guished by their deformity, their frog-like 

 heads, the shortness of their snouts, their swol- 

 len bellies, and their viviparous production* 

 With regard to the rest, which we may deno- 

 minate the chameleon or lizard kind, some of 

 which bring forth from the egg, and some of 

 which are imperfectly formed from spawn, we 

 must group them under one head, and leave 

 time to unravel the rest of their history. 



sive to mankind. Those that are bred in waters undergo 

 a metamorphosis, and pass through a tadpole state. 



