THE PROTEUS. 
185 
The next order of Crawling Batrachians is called by the name of Meantia, and contains a 
very few bnt very remarkable species. In all these creatures the body is long and smooth, 
without scales, and the gills are very conspicuous, retaining their position throughout the 
life of the animal. There are always two or four limbs, furnished with toes, but these 
members are very weak, and indeed rudimentary, and both the palate and the lower jaw are 
toothed. 
The first example of this order is the celebrated Proteus, discovered by the Baron de 
Zois, in the extraordinary locality in which it dwells. 
At Adelsberg, in the duchy of Carniola, is a most wonderful cavern, called the Grotto of 
the Maddalena, extending many hundred feet below the surface of the earth, and consequently 
buried in the profoundest darkness. In this cavern exists a little lake, roofed with stalactites, 
surrounded with masses of rock, and floored with a bed of soft mud, upon which the Proteus 
may be seen crawling uneasily, as if endeavoring to avoid the unwelcome light by which its 
presence is known. These creatures are not always to be found in the lake, though after heavy 
rains they are tolerably abundant, and the road by which they gain admission is at present 
a mystery. 
The theory of Sir H. Davy is, “ that their natural residence is a deep subterraneous lake, 
from which in great floods they are sometimes forced through the crevices of the rocks into the 
places where they are found ; and it does not appear to me impossible, when the peculiar 
nature of the country is considered, that the same great cavity may furnish the individuals 
which have been found at Adelsberg and at Sittich.” 
Whatever may be the solution of the problem, the discovery of this animal is extremely 
valuable, not only as an aid to the science of comparative anatomy, but as affording another 
instance of the strange and wondrous forms of animal life which still survive in hidden and 
unsuspected nooks of the earth. 
Many of these animals have been brought in a living state to England, and have sur- 
vived for a considerable time when their owners have taken pains to accommodate their con- 
dition as nearly as possible to that of their native waters. I have had many opportunities of 
seeing some fine specimens, brought by Dr. Lionel Beale from the cave at Adelsberg. They 
could hardly be said to have any habits, and their only custom seemed to be the systematic 
avoidance of light. Dr. Beale has kindly forwarded to me the following account of these 
curious creatures : — 
“One of the Proteuses I brought over from Adelsberg lived for five years, and, what is 
very interesting, passed four years of his life in the same water, a little fresh being added from 
time to time to make up for the loss by evaporation. He lived in about a quart of water, 
which was placed in a large globe, this being kept dark by an outer covering of green baize. 
Perhaps half a pint of water may have been added d tiring two years. 
“He was not once fed while he was in confinement, and one of his companions died soon 
after taking a worm before he had been two years in this country. 
“The one I kept was very active, and his movements were as raifid as those of an eel. He 
was thinner just before death than when he was brought from the cave, but the loss of sub- 
stance was so very slow as not to be perceptible from year to year, and to the last he retained 
the power of performing very active muscular movements. 
“His external gills always contracted when a strong light was thrown upon them. The 
circulation of the blood in the vessels of these organs was very often exhibited; the animal 
being placed in a long tube with a flat extremity, provided with an arrangement for the constant 
supply of water, and on several occasions some of the large blood corpuscles were removed 
for the purpose of microscopical examination, so that the animal was not placed under the 
most favorable circumstances for living without food. 
“There are probably very few more striking examples of very slow death from starvation 
than this, and it is probable that the ultimately fatal results were as much caused by confine- 
ment, change of air and temperature, and occasional exposure to light for some hours, as from 
mere starvation. It is well known, for example, that, as a general rule, the Batrachia endure 
starvation most remarkably.” 
Vol. HI.- 24. 
