LECTURE VII. 31 



ceeding from soft gelatinous eggs or spawn. The 

 young, when first hatched, are furnished on each 

 side the breast with a pair of ramified breathing- 

 organs, which are obliterated when the animal is 

 full-grown. The common Salamander, so famous 

 for the old vulgar error which relates to its sup- 

 posed power of living in the fire, is a beautiful 

 animal of about eight or nine inches in length, 

 and of a black colour, with large, irregular, deep- 

 yellow spots and patches. It is a native of many 

 parts of Germany in particular, and occasionally 

 appears either on land or in water : on the upper 

 part of the body it is furnished with a great many 

 large pores, from which, on any irritation a whit- 

 ish watery fluid exsudes, and this has given rise 

 to the popular, superstition of its being able to 

 quench any fire into which it can be thrown. 



The larger English-Newt or L. palustris of 

 Limueus much resembles it, but is smaller, and of 

 a brown colour, with minute white specks, and 

 varied with black and yellow beneath. 



The common or smaller- Newt, the L, aquatica 

 of Linnasus, is an inhabitant of every stagnant 

 water, and is a very elegant animal, of a yellow- 

 ish olive-brown colour, with numerous round black 



