464. 



CLASS REPTILIA, 



This reptile has been long celebrated for the mode in 

 which it perpetuates its species, and in this respect has 

 become the object of research to some of the most distin- 

 guished naturalists of the last century. 



It it now demonstrated that the female lays its eggs after 

 the manner of toads, but that the male, fastened on her back, 

 fecundates them, and then places them on the back of the 

 mother ; she then repairs to the water, where her skin swells, 

 and forms rounded alveoli, in which these eggs are lodged, 

 to be subsequently disclosed. At the moment of their birth, 

 the young have a membranous tail, before the fall of which 

 they do not quit their cell. They then have feet, and when 

 they have departed, the female, having rubbed the epidermis 

 from her back against some hard body, returns to land. 



We now arrive at a genus, whose name has been celebrated 

 from antiquity, and embellished with the tints of fable in 

 all ages. It was on the fortunate soil of ancient Greece, 

 in the bosom of a wise and warlike nation, Avhose imagination, 

 favoured by a happy climate, exaggerated even the won- 

 ders of creative power, that the reputation of the Sala- 

 mander originated, and that an immortal and generally 

 adopted name was employed to characterize an obscure 

 reptile, which has usurped the most universal celebrity, and 

 is even still one of the objects of the curiosity of man. 



This animal, which the rude inhabitants of other countries 

 regard as an object of terror, and, as a malevolent being, 

 abhor and proscribe, as an object not less disgusting than 

 dangerous, has formerly passed, and still passes in the eyes of 

 many persons, as being able to brave the violence of fire, the 

 most active of the elements, to escape from the force of its action, 

 and not only to come safe and sound out of the flames, but 

 even to extinguish them. However, after having furnished 

 so many emblems to the poet, more brilliant than faithful, 

 this little oviparous quadruped, once so highly privileged, 



