292 SALAMANDER. 



tudinal stripes : the sides are marked by many 

 large, transverse wrinkles, the intermediate spaces 

 rising into strongly marked convexities ; and the 

 sides of the tail often exhibit a similar appearance: 

 on each side the back of the liead are situated a 

 pair of large tubercles, which are in reality the 

 parotid glands, and are thus protuberant not only 

 in some others of the Lizard tribe, but in a re- 

 markable manner in the genus Rana : these parts, 

 as well as the back and sides of the body, are beset 

 in the Salamander with several large open pores 

 or foramina, through which exsudes a peculiar 

 fluid, serving to lubricate the skin, and which, on 

 any irritation, is secreted in a more sudden and co- 

 pious manner under the form of a whitish gluten, 

 of a slightly acrimonious nature ; and from the 

 readiness with which the animal, when disturbed, 

 appears to evacuate it, and that even occasionally 

 to some distance, has arisen the long-continued 

 popular error of the Salamander s being enabled to 

 live uninjured in the fire, which it has been sup- 

 posed capable of extinguishing by its natural cold- 

 ness, and moisture : the real fact is, that, like any 

 of the cold and glutinous animals, as snails, 

 &c. it, of course, is not quite so instantaneously 

 destroyed by the force of fire as an animal of a 

 drier nature would be. The general length of 

 the Salamander is about seven or eight inches, 

 though it sometimes arrives at a much larger 

 size : in the number and form of its spots it varies 

 considerably, and is occasionally seen entirely 



