LECTURE VII. 
31 
ceeding from soft gelatinous eggs or spawn. The 
young, when first hatched, are furnished on each 
side the breast with a pair of ramified breathing- 
organs, which are obliterated when the animal is 
full-grown. The common Salamander, so famous 
for the old vulgar error which relates to its sup- 
posed power of living in the fire, is a beautiful 
animal of about eight or nine inches in length, 
and of a black colour, with large, irregular, deep- 
yellow spots and patches. It is a native of many 
parts of Germany in particular, and occasionally 
appears either on land or in water : on the upper 
part of the body it is furnished with a great many 
large pores, from which, on any irritation a whit- 
ish watery fluid exsudes, and this has given rise 
to the popular superstition of Its being able to 
quench any fire into which it can be thrown. 
The larger English-Newt or L. palustris of 
Linnaeus much resembles it, but is smaller, and of 
a brown colour, with minute white specks, and 
varied with black and yellow beneath. 
The common or smaller-Newt, the L. aquatica 
of Linnaeus, is an inhabitant of every stagnant 
water, and is a very elegant animal, of a yellow- 
ish olive-brown colour, with numerous round black 
