50 GECKO LOBATUS. 



From the peculiar structure of their feet some of the species of 

 this genus are enabled to attach themselves to the smoothest sur- 

 faces ; and a very curious structure has been detected in the foot 

 of this animal, by Sir Everard Home. It occurred to this gentle- 

 man, that this must be done by a contrivance like that of the 

 Echineis remora, or sucking fish. Having procured from the late 

 Sir Joseph Banks, a large specimen of the common Gecko, 

 (Lacerta Gecko, Lin.), he was enabled to ascertain the peculiar 

 mechanism by which the feet of the animal can lay hold of a 

 smooth surface. This species, like the G. hiatus, has five toes, 

 and at the end of each, except the thumb, is a very sharp curved 

 claw. On the under surface of each claw are sixteen transverse 

 slits, leading to as many cavities, or pockets, whose depth is nearly 

 equal to the length of the slit which forms the orifice ; they all 

 open forwards, and the external edge of each opening is serrated 

 like a small-toothed comb. A large oval muscle covers the claw 

 of each toe, and from the tendons of these large muscles two sets 

 of smaller muscles originate, one pair of which is lost upon the 

 posterior surface of each of the cavities that lie immediately over 

 them. The large muscles draw down the claws, and necessarily 

 stretch the small muscles. When the small muscles contract, they 

 open the orifices of the cavities and turn down their serrated edge 

 upon the surface on which the animal stands. By this means 

 vacua are formed, and the animal adheres to the surface by the pres- 

 sure of the atmosphere.* Fig. 1, represents the under surface of one 

 of the toes of the common or Egyptian Gecko of the natural size ; 

 fig. 2, is a toe dissected, to shew the appearance of the pockets on 

 its under surface, and the small muscles by which they are drawn 

 open ; the parts being highly magnified. 



The House Gecko is found in the different countries which 

 border the Mediterranean Sea, to the south-east, particularly in 

 Egypt, Arabia, Syria, and Barbary, from whence it is supposed to 

 have spread through various parts of the south of Europe. In 

 Egypt it is named Abou-Burs (father of the leprosy) because the 

 inhabitants pretend that it causes this disease, by poisoning with 



* Sec Philosophical Transactions^ 1816, p. 149. 



