17 



saliva, to the spot, it is entangled and ingulfed in a 

 moment ; sometimes the tongue will be extended to 

 the lengtlj of five inches out of its mouth ; so that 

 its living on air is a mere fable. One we saw, had 

 lived many weeks without food ; so that its occasional 

 abstinence may be very great. Mr. J. M. Davies, of 

 Gosport, possessed a live chameleon, the favourite pet 

 of his family, apparently delighting in crawling over 

 them, and receiving food from their hand. The last 

 time we saw the living chameleon was in Mr. Neill's 

 conservatory, reposing at perfect ease on the stem of a 

 Passiflora quadrangularis with its prehensile tail coiled 

 round the plant. 



Our experiments were made on the TEMPERATURE 

 of the animal, as connected with the changes of colour 

 depicted in such varying shades on the surface of the 

 skin ; and the magic of the necromancer's rod takes not 

 the sense of vision more completely captive than do 

 these ephemeral and sportive hues. In numerous ex- 

 periments, we have clearly and satisfactorily ascertained 

 that each tint of the chromatic series of the prism 

 invariably discovers a temperature peculiar to such 

 specific colour, and in a constant ratio of progression ; 

 and, in the subsequent experiments, we employed a 

 very delicate and sensible thermometer, instantane- 

 ously affected by contact. 



20th July, 1824, at 55 minutes past 4, to 10 minutes 

 past 5, P. M. ; temperature of air, 72 .5 Fahrenheit ; 

 ball in contact with either side, 73 to 73 .5 F. ; ditto 

 ditto, 73 .5 to 74 F. As the tint varied from a 

 yellowish green to a deep pea-green, the side farthest 

 removed from the source of light, in all our observa- 

 tions, constantly discovered the lightest colour; and 

 when that side was purposely turned toward the 

 window, it assumed, in a short time, the darker shade, 



