OF THE UNITED STATES 99 



axolotl, what Cuvier, the great French naturalist, for a long time 

 thought to be an elf tadpole. He was the more certain of this, 

 inasmuch as they can in this immature stage reproduce their 

 kind! Axolotls were even referred by naturalists to a different 

 genus Siredon, and were there retained for a long time. Some 

 of them were kept and studied with great interest in aquaria 

 at the Jardin des Plantes, at Paris, and it was here, to the aston- 

 ishment of all, that their true nature was revealed. Without any 

 apparent reason one of the specimens one day suddenly was 

 transformed into an adult amblystoma, and the fact threw a 

 flood of light into the natural history of the entire group. Since 

 that time they have been studied by biologists all over the world, 

 and the writer of the present w^ork had an excellent oppor- 

 tunity to gratify his ow r n tastes in that direction during a so- 

 journ in New Mexico for a period of five years. Through the 

 Smithsonian Institution I sent upward of 300 of the living young 

 of the k * tiger salamander " (see Fig. 25) over the United States 

 and Europe, where they were very generally distributed in the 

 biological laboratories of the various institutions of learning 

 (see Science, Sept. 25, 1885). Fingers and toes, and even more of 

 the limbs of these creatures, will reproduce themselves after 

 having been amputated, and this is also an interesting fact about 

 them. 



Personally, I have never examined the Spotted salamander of 

 Europe, but we read that the " body is covered with warty 

 glands, W 7 hich secrete a milky fluid of a glutinous and acrid 

 nature, like that of a toad, and which, if not capable of affecting 

 the larger and more highly-organized animals, appears to be a 

 destructive agent to some inferior species. Thus Laurenti pro- 

 voked two gray lizards to bite a salamander, which at first 

 attempted to escape from them, but being still persecuted, 

 ejected some of this fluid into their mouths ; one of the lizards 

 died instantly, and the other fell into convulsions for two min- 

 utes, and then expired. Some of this juice was introduced into 

 the mouth of another lizard ; it became convulsed, was paralytic 

 on the whole of one side, and soon died. This account is the only 

 foundation for the long-cherished notion of the power possessed 

 by the salamander, and attaching to it the reputation of being 

 one of the most venomous of animals." The same writer asserts 

 that " a copious secretion of this fluid might damp a moderate 

 flame for an instant or two to which a salamander had been 



