THE SALAMANDER. 



401 



told by those who load it with that calumny, 

 that it is very friendly to man, and though 

 supplied with the most deadly virulence, is 

 yet never known to bite. It would be absurd 

 in us,-without experience, to pronounce upon 

 the noxious or inoffensive qualities of animals, 

 yet it is probable, from an inspection of the 

 teeth of lizards, and from their inoffensive qua- 

 lities in Europe, that the gekko has been un- 

 justly accused; and that its serpent-like figure 

 has involved it in one common reproach with 

 serpents. 



The salamander best known in Europe, is 

 from eight to eleven inches long, usually 

 black, spotted with yellow; and, when taken 

 in the hand, feeling cold to a great degree. 

 There are several kinds. Our Black Water- 

 Newt is reckoned among the number. The 

 idle report of its being inconsumable in fire, 

 has caused many of these poor animals to be 

 burnt ; but we cannot say as philosophical 

 martyrs, since scarcely any philosopher could 

 think it necessary to make the experiment. 

 When thrown into the fire, the animal is seen 

 to burst with the heat of its situation, and to 

 eject its fluids. We are gravely told, in the 

 Philosophical Transactions, that this is a 

 method the animal takes to extinguish the 

 flames ! 



When examined internally, the salamander 

 exhibits little difference from other animals of 

 the lizard kind. It is furnished with lungs 

 that sometimes serve for the offices of breathing ; 

 with a heart that has its communications open, 

 so that the animal cannot easily be drowned. 

 The ovary in the female is double the size of 

 what it is in others of this tribe ; and the 

 male is furnished with four testiculi instead 

 of two. But what deserves particular notice 

 is the manner of this animal's bringing forth 

 its young alive. 1 " The salamander," says 

 my author, " begins to show itself in spring, 

 and cliiefly during heavy rains. When the 

 warm weather returns, it disappears; arid 

 never leaves its hole, during either great heats 

 or severe colds, both which it equally fears. 

 When taken in the hand, it appears like a 

 lump of ice ; it consequently loves the shade, 

 and is found at the feet of old trees surrounded 

 with brushwood at the bottom. It is fond of 

 running along new ploughed grounds : proba- 

 bly to seek for worms, which are its ordinary 

 food. One of these," continues my author, 

 " I took alive some years ago in a ditch that 

 had been lately made. I laid it at the foot 

 of the stairs upon coming home, and there it 

 disgorged from the throat a worm three inches 

 long, that lived for an hour after, though 



1 Acta Hafniensia, ami. 167(5. Observ. 11. Memoires 

 de 1'Academie Royale des Sciences, torn. iii. part 3. 

 p. 80. 



voi. ii. 



wounded as I suppose by the teeth of the ani- 

 mal. I afterwards cut up another of these 

 lizards, and saw not less than fifty young ones, 

 resembling the parent, come_frpm its womb, 

 all alive, and actively running about the 

 room." It were to be wished the author had 

 used another word besides that of worm ; as 

 we now are in doubt whether he means a real 

 worm, or a young animal of the lizard species : 

 had he been more explicit, and had it appeared 

 that it was a real young lizard, which I take 

 to be his meaning, we might here see a won- 

 der of Nature brought to the proof, which 

 many have asserted, and many have thought 

 proper to deny ; I mean the refuge which the 

 young of the shark, the lizard, and the viper 

 kinds, are said to take, by running down the 

 throat of the parent, and there finding a tem- 

 porary security. The fact, indeed, seems a 

 little extraordinary ; and yet it is so frequently 

 attested by some, and even believed by others, 

 whose authority is respectable, among the 

 number of whom we find Mr Pennant, that 

 the argument of strangeness must give way to 

 the weight of authority. 



However this be, there is no doubt of the 

 animal's being viviparous, and producing 

 above fifty at a time. They come from the 

 parent in full perfection, and quickly leave 

 her to shift for themselves. These animals, 

 in the lower ranks of nature, want scarcely 

 any help when excluded ; they soon complete 

 the little circle of their education ; and in a 

 day or two are capable of practising all the 

 arts of subsistence and evasion practised by 

 their kind. 



They are all amphibious, or at least are found 

 capable of subsisting in either element, when 

 placed there : if those taken from land are 

 put into water, they continue there in seeming 

 health : and, on the contrary, those taken 

 from the water will live upon land. In water, 

 however, they exhibit a greater variety in 

 their appearance ; and what is equally won- 

 derful with the rest of their history, during 

 the whole spring and summer, this water- 

 lizard changes its skin every fourth or fifth day ; 

 and during the winter every fifteen days. This 

 operation they perform by means of the moutl 

 and the claws : and it seems a work of no 

 small difficulty and pain. The cast skins are 

 frequently seen floating on the surface of the 

 water : they are sometimes seen also with a 

 part of their old skin still sticking to one of their 

 limbs, which they have not been able to get 

 rid of ; and thus, like a man with a boot half 

 drawn, in some measure crippled in their own 

 spoils. This also often corrupts, and the leg 

 drops off; but the animal does not seem to feel 

 the want of it, for the loss of a limb to all the 

 lizard kind is but a trifling calamity. They 

 can live several hours even after the loss of 

 3 B 



