188 REPTIL1A. 



BUFO, Laurent. 



Toads have a thick bulky body, covered with warts or papilla? ; a thick 

 lump behind the ears, pierced with pores, from which issues a milky and fetid 

 humour ; no teeth ; the hind feet but slightly elongated. They leap badly, 

 and generally avoid the water. They are hideous and disgusting animals, 

 whose bite, saliva, &c. are considered, though erroneously, as poisonous. 



There are now several subgenera, such as Rhinellus, Otilojjhis, Pipa, &c. 



SALAMANDRA, Brongniart. 



Salamanders have an elongated body, four feet, and a long tail, which gives 

 them the general form of lizards, with which Linnaeus placed them : but they 

 have all the characters of Batrachians. 



In their adult state, respiration is performed as in frogs and tortoises. 

 Their tadpoles at first breathe by means of branchiae, resembling tufts, three 

 on each side of the neck, which are subsequently obliterated ; they are 

 suspended to cartilaginous arches, vestiges of which remain in the hyoid bone 

 of the adult. A membranous operculum covers these openings, but the tufts 

 are never inclosed by a tunic, and always float externally. The fore feet 

 are developed before the hind ones; the toes appear successively in the first and 

 the last. 



SXLAMVNDRA, Laurent. 



The terrestrial Salamanders, in a perfect state, have a round tail, and inhabit 

 the water only during their tadpole condition, which is but a short period, 

 or when the female is ready to bring forth. The eggs are hatched in the 

 oviduct. 



TRITTON, Laurent. 



Aquatic Salamanders always retain the vertically compressed tail, and 

 pass nearly the whole of their existence in the water. The experiments of 

 Spallanzani on their astonishing power of reproduction, have rendered them 

 celebrated. If a limb be amputated, another is reproduced in its stead, 

 with all its bones, muscles, vessels, &c., and this takes place several times in 

 succession. Another not less singular faculty, discovered by Dufay, is the 

 power they possess of remaining inclosed in ice for a considerable time 

 without perishing. 



Skeletons of a Salamander, three feet in length, have been discovered 

 among the schist of (Eningen. One of them is the pretended Fossil Man of 

 Scheucher. 



Immediately after the Salamanders come several very similar animals, some 

 of which are considered as having been always destitute of branchial, that is, 

 they probably lose them at as early a period as our terrrestrial Salamanders; 

 the others, on the contrary, retain them for life : a circumstance, however, 

 which does not prevent their having lungs like the Batrachians, so that they 

 may be considered as the only vertebrate animals which are truly amphibious. 



The former (those in which no branchiae are visible) constitute two genera. 



