716 REPTILIA — SALAMANDER. 



cannot say as philosophical martyrs ; since scarce any philosopher would 

 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 iire gravely told in the Philosophical Transactions, that this is a method 

 the animal takes to extinguish the flames, 



Tlis whole of the lizard kind are so tenacious of life, that they will live 

 several hours after the loss of the head; they also sustain the want of food 

 in a surprising manner. One of them, brought from the Indies, lived nine 

 months without any other food than what it received from licking a piece of 

 earth, on which it was brought over; another was kept by Seba, in an 

 empty phial, for six months, without any nourishment; and Redi talks of 

 a large one, brought from Africa, that lived for eight months, Avithout taking 

 any nourishment whatever. Indeed, as many of this kind, both salaman- 

 ders and lizards, are torpid, or nearly so, during the winter, the loss of their 

 appetite for so long a time is the less surprising. If wetted with vinegar, 

 however, or sprinkled with powdered salt, the animal soon dies in convul- 

 sions. 



