COMMON WATER-XEWT* 



mon green Lizard (Lac. agilis) have been restored 

 to their former fullness and strength after being; 



o o 



punctured with a needle so as to let out the 

 aqueous humour, is an observation recorded by 

 Pliny *, and referred to by Mr. Schneider in the 

 first fasciculus of his work entitled Historia Am- 

 phibiorum. 



It has been already observed, in the general de- 

 scription of the Amphibia, at the beginning of 

 this volume, that they are tenacious of life, and 

 that water-newts have been found completely 

 imbedded in masses of ice, in which they must 

 have remained some weeks, or even, perhaps, 

 months, and yet on the dissolution of the ice, 

 have been restored to their former vigour. It 

 is remarkable that they are very readily killed 

 by being plunged into salt water, or rubbed on 

 the back for a short time with common salt. 



I must not omit to add, that the L. palustris 

 and aquatica^ have by some writers been consi- 



* Speaking of various remedies for blindness, Pliny says, " La- 

 certas quoque pluribus modis ad oculorum remedia assumunt. 

 Alii terram substernunt Lacertae viridi excoecatae, et una in vitreo 

 vase annulos includunt e ferro solido vel auro : cum recepisse 

 visum lacertam apparuerit per vitrum, emissa ea, annuli contra 

 lippitudinem utuntur." Piin. Hist. Nat. lib. 29. sect. 28. 



f- Linnaeus seems not to have understood clearly the nature of 

 this animal; since, after its specific character, in the 12th edit, 

 of the Systema Naturae, he proposes a question ; whether it may 

 not be the Larva of the Lacerta vulgaris ? and in a former edition 

 of the same work he appears to think it the Larva of the L. agilis ; 

 upon which query Laurenti makes the following observation : 

 " Linnaeus interrogat : an forte larva lacertaj agilis ? Inepta 



