8 Observations on the Natural Histoiiy 



ventral scales, nor the long ribs of the serpent, whieli are consi- 

 dered to serve as organs of locomotion. Their trunk stands 

 supported on the four limbs, and does not touch the ground but 

 occasionally, and then only when they move by steps ; so that 

 they move on land with the gait common to all quadrupeds. As 

 the larva approaches the period of transformation, his move- 

 ments resemble those of the adult salamander ; but when young, 

 the limbs are so slender and weak, as to be unable to sustain the 

 trunk. At a later period, when taken out of the water, he is 

 able to move a little to the right and left with the anterior part 

 of the body ; but with the posterior part, he remains as if fixed 

 to the surface on which he stands. 



Not dissimilar to the larvae above mentioned are the protei, 

 with regard to the capacity of progression out of water. They 

 possess not the incurvations of the trunk, by which they would 

 be enabled to crawl ; nor do their four limbs serve them for 

 creeping, nor for moving like quadrupeds. If they bend to the 

 right or left, the entire body forms but a single curve ; and on 

 resuming a straight line, the body is found always in the same 

 place. It is true, that, sometimes by pushing with the hind- 

 limbs forcibly against the ground, and stretching forward the 

 trunk, they are able to move a little in advance ; but this is done 

 with the greatest difficulty, from the circumstance that their 

 body being smeared with a viscid mucus, adheres to the surface 

 on which they attempt to move. 



It thus appears, that, in water, the proteus has the singular 

 and surprising faculty of moving himself in the manner of qua- 

 drupeds, of serpents and of fishes ; and that he adopts now one 

 kind of movement and now another, according as his necessities 

 urge him to move with greater or less rapidity. His whole 

 structure seems to destine him to live continually in water, and 

 unfits him for the life of a land animal ; but the aquatic sala- 

 mander has limbs sufficiently strong to move on land ; and the 

 authors have been assured by men who are employed in fishing 

 in the streams they inhabit, that at certain seasons they go on 

 land. 



We find no particular account of the muscular system, but 

 the authors proceed next to treat. 



