PRO 



L 369 1 



PRO 



chial organs are not like the gills 

 of fishes; they form a singular 

 vascular structure, almost like a 

 crest, round the throat, which may 

 be removed without occasioning 

 the death of the animal, who is 

 likewise furnished with lungs. 

 "With this douhle apparatus for 

 supplying air to the blood, it can 

 either live below or above the 

 water. Its fore feet resemble 

 hands, but they have only three 

 claws or fingers, and are too feeble 

 to be of use in grasping or support- 

 ing the weight of the animal ; the 

 hinder feet have only two claws or 

 toes, and in the larger specimens 

 these are found so imperfect as to be 

 almost obliterated. It has small 

 points instead of eyes, as if to 

 preserve the analogy of nature. It 

 is of a fleshy whiteness or trans- 

 parency in its natural state, but 

 when exposed to light, its skin 

 gradually becomes darker, and at 

 last gains an olive tint. Its nasal 

 organs appear large and it is 

 abundantly furnished with teeth, 

 from which it may be concluded 

 that it is an animal of prey ; yet in 

 its confined state it has never been 

 known to eat, and it has been kept 

 alive for many years by occasionally 

 changing the water in which it is 

 placed. The proteus was first 

 discovered in Illyria by the late 

 Baron Zois ; but it has been re- 

 ported that some individuals of the 

 same species have been recognized 

 in the calcareous strata in Sicily." 

 The proteus has been found of 

 various sizes, from that of the 

 thickness of a quill to that of the 

 thumb, but its form of organs has 

 always been the same. It is a 

 perfect animal of a peculiar species, 

 and it adds one instance more to 

 the number already known, of the 

 wonderful manner in which life is 

 produced and perpetuated in every 

 part of the globe, even in places 

 which seem the least suited to 



organized existences. And the 

 same Infinite Power and Wisdom 

 which has fitted the camel and the 

 o.strich for the deserts of Africa, 

 the whale for the Polar seas, and 

 the morse and the white bear for 

 the Arctic ice, has given the 

 proteus to the deep and dark sub- 

 terraneous lakes of Illyria, an 

 animal to whom the presence of 

 light is not essential, and who can 

 live indifferently in air and in 

 water, on the surface of the rock, 

 or in the mud. The organization 

 of the spine of the proteus is analo- 

 gous to that of one of the sauri, 

 the remains of which are found in 

 the older secondary strata. The 

 problem of the reproduction of the 

 proteus, like that of the eel, is not 

 yet solved, but ovaria have been 

 discovered in animals of both 

 species. 



2. This name is also given to a 

 species of infusoria. Of these, the 

 most singular, says Dr. Roget, is 

 the Proteus, which cannot, indeed, 

 be said to have any determinate 

 shape ; for it seldom remains the 

 same for two minutes together. It 

 looks like a mass of soft jelly, 

 highly irritable and contractile in 

 every part ; at one time wholly 

 shrunk into a ball, at another 

 stretched out into a lengthened 

 riband; and again, at another 

 moment, perhaps, we find it 

 doubled upon itself like a leech. 

 If we watch its motions for any 

 time, we see some parts shooting 

 out, as if suddenly inflated, and 

 branching forth into star-like radi- 

 ations, or assuming various gro- 

 tesque shapes, while other parts 

 will, in like manner, be as quickly 

 contracted. Thus the whole figure 

 may, in an instant, be completely 

 changed, by metamorphoses as rapid 

 as they are irregular and capricious. 

 PEOTHE'EITE. A mineral species, oc- 

 curring in the valley of the Ziller- 

 thal, in the Tyrol. 



