38 NATURALIST'S CABINET. 



Supposed property of living in the fire. 



tils from those plants called esula and euphor- 

 biurn. The general length of the salamander is 

 seven or eight inches, though sometimes it be- 

 comes much longer. It is found in many parts 

 of Germany, Italy, and France. When crushed, 

 or only pressed, this animal exhales a bad smell, 

 which is peculiar to it. 



The ancients, for what reason it would be dif- 

 ficult to say, attributed to the salamander the 

 property of being able to live in the fire; but 

 what is more extraordinary, the same circum- 

 stance is seriously detailed as a fact in the Phi- 

 losophical Transactions. This species is found 

 in most of the southern countries of Europe, and 

 of which the Cointe de la Cepede has given the 

 most accurate account. " Whilst the hardest 

 bodies cannot resist the violence of fire, the 

 world have endeavored to make us believe that a 

 small lizard can not only withstand the flames, 

 but even extinguish them. As agreeable fables 

 readily gain belief, every one has been eager to 

 adopt that of a small animal so highly privileged, 

 so superior to the most powerful agent in nature, 

 and which could furnish so many objects of com- 

 parison to poetry, so many pretty emblems to love, 

 and so many brilliant devices to valor. The ancients 

 not only believed this property of the salamander, 

 but wishing that its origin might be as surprising 

 as its power, and being desirous of realizing the 

 ingenious fictions of the poets, they have pre- 

 tended that it owes its existence to the purest of 



