113 Dr RusconiV Observations on the Natural History 
those of my tub, an egg concealed. Nay more, I found in one 
leaf a young salamander already evolved, and which exhibited 
signs of life by moving and changing its position.” The author 
dwells with great satisfaction on this discovery, which enabled 
him at once to pursue the object he contemplated, without hav- 
ing recourse to artificial processes. 
“ My joy,” he continues, “ was so great, that, having chosen 
about twenty leaves, each of which contained an egg not yet 
evolved, I put them into a bucket filled with the water of the 
ditch, and at once proceeded to my lodging. Arrived there, I 
poured the water of my bucket, together with the leaves of 
persicaria , into a bason ; and having chosen an egg for the sub- 
ject of my observations, I began my experiment. I shall defer 
particular details until I come to an explanation of the figures ; 
and, for the present, shall only observe, that there is not, in my 
opinion, a more agreeable or more curious spectacle than that 
which the embryo of the salamander offers to the philosophic 
naturalist, in the portion of time while he is yet in the egg, and 
for a few days after his escape from it. All that in other ani- 
mals, passes in the midst of the thickest darkness, is here carried 
on under the eyes of the observer, who is able to contemplate, 
quite at bis ease, the progressive development of the different 
parts of the animal; and, by the order which nature observes in 
this development, is able to conjecture what are the organs the 
most important and most necessary to the life of the individual. 
In fact, when we consider the different phases through which 
the little salamander passes, we might say that Nature, for once, 
far from shewing herself jealous of her operations, is here pleased 
to disclose them to our view ; for, scarcely has the little animal 
escaped from its envelopes, than she prepares for the observer a 
new picture, not less pleasing than the former.” 
The little animal, which is opaque, and formed apparently of 
a soft and homogeneous substance, while yet retained in its enve- 
lope, becomes gradually transparent, almost as soon as he has 
escaped from it ; so that, if the naturalist has been able to see, 
through the transparent walls of the envelope, the development 
of the exterior parts only, he now sees the formation, both of the 
external and internal parts together. He discovers the heart 
of the animal, and follows its contractions and dilatations : he 
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