FOOT OF THE GECKO. 315 



This conclusion Sir Everard has been led to draw from 

 an examination of the foot of the Lacerta Gecko. Sir 

 Joseph Banks had mentioned to him in the year 1815, 

 that this lizard, which is a native of the island of Java, 

 comes out in the evening from the roofs of the houses, 

 and walks down the smooth, hard, polished chunam walls 

 in search of the flies which settle upon them, and which 

 are its natural food. When Sir Joseph was at Batavia, 

 he amused himself in catching this lizard. He stood close 

 to the wall at some distance from the animal, and, by 

 suddenly scraping the wall with a long flattened pole, he 

 was able to bring the animal to the ground. 



Having procured from Sir Joseph a very large specimen 

 of the Gecko, which weighed 5| ounces avoirdupois, Sir 

 Everard Home was enabled to ascertain the peculiar 

 mechanism by which the feet of this animal have the 

 power of keeping hold of a smooth, hard, perpendicular 

 wall, and carry up so heavy a weight as that of its body. 



The foot of the Gecko has five toes, and at the end of 

 each of them, except the thumb, is a very sharp, and highly- 

 curved claw. On the under surface of each toe are six- 

 teen transverse slits, leading to as many cavities or pockets, 

 the depth of which is nearly equal to the length of the 

 slit that forms the surface. These cavities all open 

 forwards, and the external edge of each opening is serrated 

 like the teeth of a small toothed comb. The cavities are 

 lined with a cuticle, which also covers the serrated edges. 



This structure Sir Everard Home found to bear a con- 

 siderable resemblance to that portion of the head of the 

 Echineis remora, or sucking-fish, by which it attaches itself 

 to the shark, or the bottoms of ships. It is of an oval 

 form, and is surrounded by a broad, loose, moveable edge, 

 capable of applying itself closely to the surface on which 

 it is set. It consists of two rows of cartilaginous plates, 

 connected by one edge to the surface on which they are 



