THE PROTEUS. 



lake, from which in great floods they are sometimes forced through the crevices of the 

 rocks into the places where they are found ; and it does not appear to me impossible, when 

 the peculiar nature of the countiy is considered, that the same great cavity may furnish 

 the individuals which have been found at Adelsberg and at Sittich." 



Whatever may be the solution of the problem, the discovery of this animal is extremely 

 valuable, not only as an aid to the science of comparative anatomy, but as affording 

 another instance of the strange and wondrous forms of animal life which still survive in 

 hidden and unsuspected nooks of the earth. 



Many of these animals have been brought in a living state to this country, and have 

 survived for a considerable time when their owners have taken pains to accommodate 

 their condition as nearly as possible to that of their native waters. I have had many 

 opportunities of seeing some fine specimens, brought by Dr. Lionel Beale from the cave at 

 Adelsberg. They could hardly be said to have any habits, and their only custom seemed 

 to be the systematic avoidance of light. Dr. Beale has kindly forwarded to me the fol- 

 lowing account of these curious creatures : 



PROTEUS. Proteus angvinns. 



" One of the Proteuses I brought over from Adelsberg lived lor live years, and, what is 

 very interesting, passed four years of his life in the same water, a little fresh being added 

 from time to time to make up for the loss by evaporation. He lived in about a quart oi 

 water, which was placed in a large globe, this being kept dark by an outer covering oJ 

 green baize. Perhaps half a pint of water may have been added during two years. 



He was not once fed while he was in confinement, and one of his companions died soon 

 after taking a worm before he had been two years in this country. 



The one I kept was very active, and his movements were as rapid as those of an eeL 

 He was thinner just before death than when he was brought from the cave, but the loss 

 of substance was so very slow as not to be perceptible from year to year, and to the last 

 he retained the power of performing very active muscular movements. 



His external gills always contracted when a strong light was thrown upon them. The 

 circulation of the blood in the vessels of these organs was very often exhibited ; the 

 animal being placed in a long tube with a flat extremity, provided with an arrangement 

 for the constant supply of water, and on several occasions some of the large blood 

 corpuscules were removed for the purpose of microscopical examination, so that the 

 animal was not placed under the most favourable circumstances for living without food. 



There are probably very few more striking examples of very slow death from starva 

 tion than this, and it is probable that the ultimately fatal results were as much caused b> 



o 



