MATERIA INDICA

CHAP. t. MATERIA INDICA.
the East.Indies, and are di')tingllished by the noxiolls
flui,d they secrete! the head is thick, muzzle taper,
tongue thick, flat, and slightly cleft at its tip, eyes
like the chameleon's, body long and thin, tail commonly
cylindrical; the feet have five broad toes,
flattened along their margins, and of a light. grey
colour. What is singular in the gecko lizard is, that
it can walk down the smoothest chunam walls, which
it does in search of' flies; how it accomplishes this,
by its' anatomical formation, is tlilly explained ill a
very interesting paper by Sir Everard Home, to be
found in the Phil. Trans. for Ib16 (p. 149.). Mr.
C. Stewart, in his Elements of' Natural History,
informs liS, that with the acrid fluid secreted by the
gecko lizard the Japanese poison their arrows. The.
lacerta agilis, or grey lizard, is comparatively irmocent,
is very lively, is quite .dumb, and has the back
marked with a longitudinal dotted browni:;h line,
tongue forked, and capable of' being thrust Ollt of the
mouth; the tail is at least as long as the body, quite
cylindrical, and composed of' gombo rings, while the
belly is covered wit.h imbricated scales. In Europe
the internal use of the common green lizard had beeD
extolled in cases of leprosy, scrophuia, and cancer
(see Flores Specifique nouvellement decouvert, &c.
Lausanne, 1785.); but u:om _trials made of it by
Carminali, ,its virtues appear to be very doubtful.
Virey, in his Histoire Natul'elle des Medicamens
(p. 117.), informs us, that in Spain and at Naples the
lacerta agilis (Lin.), when deprived of the skin, head,
tail and entrails, is administered in venereal cases,
and quotes Elpl'ez as his authority (1782.), who says
of its specific virtues, "espicifico descuLierto en d
regno de quatiluana," adding, that it producos saliva.
tion and sweating. The lacerta scincus (Lin.), the
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