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JOURNAL, R.A.S. (OEYLON). [Vol. IX. 



with two yellow side-bands. The skin is lubric, like that 

 of a frog or a salamander. It lives under the surface soil 

 near rivulets or ponds, in cavities which it digs for itself. 

 Its eyes are small ; there are no feet. Two tentacles, which 

 are at the top of the snout and are retractile, are very 

 remarkable ; further, the skin is particularly interesting, 

 because there are imbedded in it numberless very small 

 round scales like those of fish, but invisible from the outside, 

 and also different from the fish scales in their finer histolo- 

 logical composition. The genus Epicrium has some few 

 relatives in America, which bear the old name of the whole 

 class, viz., Goecilia. 



It is but natural that this animal should excite the 

 greatest interest of naturalists, and that many efforts have 

 been made to arrive at a clear knowledge of its position 

 in the natural system. The concl usion arrived at was, that 

 it ought to be ranged under the order of the Amphibians, 

 and not, as it was supposed formerly, under that of the 

 Reptiles, especially of the snakes. Later on, as there have 

 been found different anatomical peculiarities which pointed 

 out a somewhat isolated position of the animal, it was raised 

 to a special order, that of the Assoda, and was put in the 

 lowest rank of the general class of the Amphibians. 



We know from experience, that if the position of an 

 animal in the natural system is not clearly understood, 

 its development throws light upon the question, the animal 

 in its development showing the traces of those forms 

 which it had to run through, according to the theory of 

 evolution, to arrive at its present form. "We know, for 

 instance, that the well-known water-salamander (Triton) is 

 an animal which for some time of the year lives on land, and 

 breathes through lungs ; it lays its eggs in the water, 

 and out of them come forth larvae, which have at each side 

 of the head near the ear a bundle of gills. Feeding in 

 the water the animal gradually obtains lungs, the gills 

 atrophying, and finally dropping off ; it then seeks land, and 



