ALCHEMY 113 



vanished. The movement was so rapid that my eye 

 could not distinctly follow it. 



The lizards walk on the ceilings as easily as they do 

 on the walls ; but I do not think that they can run on 

 the ceilings with quite the same rapidity. It is not very 

 easy to understand how they can run on the ceilings at 

 all. The lizards adhere to the walls and ceilings, so we 

 are told, by the pressure of the atmosphere, they having 

 the power to create small vacuums by drawing up the 

 skin of their bodies and feet, and so forming hollows 

 between themselves and the surfaces. But then how 

 can these hollows be formed, closed, and re-formed with 

 sufficient rapidity to enable the lizard to run and yet to 

 hold on ? 



Occasionally the lizard does not succeed in doing so ; 

 he sometimes falls back from wall and ceiling, and when 

 he does the result is generally a disaster. A great flop 

 is heard as the lizard alights on the hard cemented floor, 

 and on approaching one finds that the body and the 

 tail have parted company ; the tail has broken off at the 

 root, and lies wriggling on the floor, while the lizard runs 

 off and mounts the wall again apparently quite uncon- 

 cerned. The tail appears almost as if endowed with an 

 independent vitality. It will continue wriggling for a 

 very long period, and even when it has ceased to move 

 it will recommence its wriggling if stimulated by a 

 touch. 



The loss of his tail is to the lizard only a temporary 

 deprivation : a new tail is developed. I have never 

 watched the development in the same lizard ; I cannot, 

 therefore, say how long a period it occupies, but I 



