y whose aid I reached the sea-coast. Here a Maltese
vessel was waiting to waft me to a land of freedom and security. I can
tell you, my friends, that from that time I was cured forever of all
curiosity about earthquakes.

FOOTNOTES:

[6] From a work entitled "Scenes of Italian Life," by L. Mariotti, just
published in London.

A PLEA FOR BRITISH REPTILES.

What the flourishing tradesman writes with pride over his shop, we might
in most cases write over our storehouse of antipathies--established in
1720, or 1751. For what good reason we, in 1851, should shudder at the
contact of a spider, or loathe toads, it would be hard to say. Our
forefathers in their ignorance did certainly traduce the characters of
many innocent and interesting animals, and many of us now believe some
portions of their scandal. To be a reptile, for example, is perhaps the
greatest disgrace that can attach to any animal in our eyes. Reptile
passes for about the worst name you can call a man. This is unjust--at
any rate, in England. We have no thought of patting crocodiles under the
chin, or of embracing boa constrictors; but for our English reptiles we
claim good words and good-will. We beg to introduce here, formally, our
unappreciated friends to any of our human friends who may not yet have
cultivated their acquaintance.

The Common Lizard--surely you know the Common Lizard, if not by his name
of state--_Zootoca vivipara_. He wears a brilliant jacket, and you have
made friends with him, as a nimble, graceful fellow; as a bit of
midsummer. His very name reminds you of a warm bank in the country, and
a sunny day. Is he a reptile? Certainly; suppose we stop two minutes to
remember what a reptile is.

The heart of a reptile has three cavities; that is to say, it is not
completely double, like our own. It sends only a small part of the blood
which comes into it for renovation into the air-chambers--the lungs;
while the remainder circulates again unpurified. That change made in the
blood by contact with the oxygen of air, is chiefly the cause of heat in
animals. Aeration, therefore, being in reptiles very partial, the amount
of heat evolved is small; reptiles are therefore called cold-blooded.
They are unable to raise their heat above the temperature of the
surrounding air. Fishes are cold-blooded, through deficient aeration in
another way; in them, all the blood passes from the heart into the place
where air shall come in contact with it;