THE SALAMATJBER. 
751 
long time it has inspired much terror. Even Aristotle speaks of it as 
of an animal with which he was scarcely acquainted. 
One of the largest of this species, preserved in the late French 
king’s cabinet, is seven inches five lines in length, from the end of 
the muzzle to the root of the tail, which is three inches eight lines. 
The skin does not appear to be covered with scales, but it is furnished 
With a number of excrescences like teats, containing many holes, 
several of which may be very plainly distinguished by the naked eye, 
and through which a kind of milk oozes, that generally spreads itself 
in such a manner as to form a transparent coat of varnish above 
the skin of this oviparous quadruped, which is naturally dry. The 
eyes are placed in the upper part of the head, which is a little 
flattened. 
The colour of this species is very dark : upon the belly it has a 
bluish cast, intermixed with pretty large irregular yellow spots, which 
extend over the whole body, and even to the feet and eyelid : some 
of these spots are besprinkled with small black specks ; and those 
which are upon the back often touch without interruption, and form 
two long yellow bands. The colour must, however, be various ; and 
some salamanders are found in the marshy forests of Germany, which 
are quite black above, and yellow below. To this variety we must 
refer the black salamander, found by M. Laurenti in the Alps, which 
he considered as a distinct species. 
The salamander has no ribs ; neither have frogs, to which it has a 
great resemblance in the general form of the anterior part of its body. 
When touched, it suddenly covers itself with that kind of coat of which 
we have spoken, and can also very rapidly change its skin from a state 
of humidity to a state of dryness. The milk which issues from the 
small holes in its surface is very acrid ; when put upon the tongue, one 
feels as it were a kind of sear at the part which is touched. This 
milk, which is considered as an excellent substance for taking off the 
hair, has some resemblance to that which distils from the esula and 
euphorbium. When the salamander is crushed, or when it is only 
pressed, it exhales a peculiarly bad smell. Salamanders are fond 
of cold damp places, thick shades, tufted woods, high mountains, and 
the banks of streams that run through meadows ; they sometimes 
retire in great numbers to hollow trees, hedges, and below old rot- 
ten stumps ; and they occasionally pass the winter, in places of high 
latitude, in a kind of burrow, where they are found joined and twisted 
together. 
The salamander being destitute of claws, having only four toes on 
each of the four feet, and no advantage of conformation to make up 
its deficiencies, its manner of living must be very different from 
that of other lizards. It walks very slowly, and though able 
to climb trees with rapidity, it often appears to drag itself with 
great difficulty along the surface of the earth. It seldom goes 
far from its place of shelter : it passes its life under the earth, 
often at the bottom of old walls, during the summer; it dreads the 
heat of the sun, which would dry it, and it is only when rain is about 
to fall, that it comes forth from its asylum to bathe itself, and to imbibe 
an element to which it is analogous. Perhaps it finds then with 
