and Structure of ' the Proteus Angubms . 91 
ventral scales, nor the long ribs of the serpent, which are consi- 
dered to serve as organs of locomotion. Their trunk stands 
supported on the four limbs, and does not touch the ground but 
occasionally, and then only when they move by steps ; so that 
they move on land with the gait common to all quadrupeds. As 
the larva approaches the period of transformation, his move- 
ments resemble those of the adult salamander ; but when young, 
the limbs are so slender and weak, as to be unable to sustain the 
trunk. At a later period, when taken out of the water, he is 
able to move a little to the right and left with the anterior part 
of the body ; but with the posterior part, he remains as if fixed 
to the surface on which he stands. 
Not dissimilar to the larvae above mentioned are the protei, 
with regard to the capacity of progression out of water. They 
possess not the incurvations of the trunk, by which they would 
be enabled to crawl ; nor do their four limbs serve them for 
creeping, nor for mo A ng like quadrupeds. If they bend to the 
right or left, the entire body forms but a single curve ; and on 
resuming a straight line, the body is found always in the same 
place. It is true, that, sometimes by pushing with the hind- 
limbs forcibly against the ground, and stretching forward the 
trunk, they are able to move a little in advance ; but this is done 
with the greatest difficulty, from the circumstance that their 
body being smeared with a viscid mucus, adheres to the surface 
on which they attempt to move. 
It thus appears, that, in water, the proteus has the singular 
and surprising faculty of moving himself in the manner of qua- 
drupeds, of serpents and of fishes ; and that he adopts now one 
kind of movement and now another, according as his necessities 
urge him to move with greater or less rapidity. His whole 
structure seems to destine him to live continual !} 7 in water, and 
unfits him for the life of a land animal ; but the aquatic sala- 
mander has limbs sufficiently strong to move on land ; and the 
authors have been assured by men who are employed in fishing 
in the streams they inhabit, that at certain seasons they go on 
land. 
We find no particular account of the muscular system, but 
the authors proceed next to treat, 
