Far from being an enthusiastic inhabitant of fire, as the ancients believed, the salamander must be moist, dies if it is even thoroughly dried out. Though no fire-eater, the lizard-like little creature is, however, something of a devil. He secretes in his skin a milky poison which causes most of his potential enemies to leave him severely alone. This skin poison is thought to be harmless to man.
Last week a group of Stanford University scientists announced that they had found a far more virulent poison in a species of salamander, Triturus torosus, which...
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