Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 19.djvu/851

Rh P B O P E 827 PROTEUS, a Greek sea-god, spoken of by Homer as the Old Man of the Sea. In the Odyssey he dwells in the sea near Pharos, an island said to be a day s sail from the mouth of the Nile ; in Virgil his home is the Carpathian Sea between Crete and Rhodes. He knew all things past, present, and future, but was very loth to tell what he knew. Those who would consult him had first to surprise and bind him during his noon-day slumber in a cave by the sea, where he was wont to pass the heat of the day surrounded by his seals. Even when caught he would try to escape by assuming all sorts of shapes ; now he was a lion, now a serpent, a leopard, a boar, a tree, fire, water. But if his captor held him fast, the god at last returned to his proper shape, gave the wished-for answer, and then plunged into the sea. He was subject to Poseidon, whose finny droves he shepherded under the billows. In post- Homeric times some thought that Proteus was a king of Egypt, at whose court the fair Helen tarried after she had been carried off by Paris, while the Greeks fondly deemed she was in Troy. This is the story followed, with varia tions, by Herodotus, who got it from Egyptian priests, and by Euripides in his play of Helen. The fairy tale of Proteus lias been interpreted in various fanciful ways. Proteus s leading features his knowledge of the future and his power of assuming any shape at pleasure are characteristic of the &quot; medicine-men &quot; of savages in many parts of the world. As late as the beginning of our era there was a class of wizards at Rhodes who possessed two at least of the chief marks of &quot; medicine men &quot; the powers of transforming themselves and of making rain (Diod. Sic., v. 55). There were rain-makers also at Rome (Festus, s.v. &quot; aquajlicium, &quot; where see commentary). PROTEUS ANGUINUS, a blind, newt-like perenni- branchiate Amphibian, about a foot long, found in the Adelsberg, Maddalena, and other limestone caverns of Carinthia and Carniola. The creature is white or flesh- coloured, and the transparent gills appear blood red ; the skin passes uninterruptedly over the rudimentary eyes. The animal s body is cylindrical ; the snout is long and blunt ; the fore-feet have three toes, and the hind (which are set very far back) two. There are three gill-arches and two gill-slits on each side. The absence of the fourth branchial arch is a feature that Proteus has in common with Menobranchus and also with Spelerpes. The skull is of an elongated form, and presents several remarkable characters. The trabeculaj cranii are persistent, as in the snake. The membrane bones are singularly few, the maxillae being rudimentary and the nasals and supra- occipital absent. In the lower jaw the splenial is said to be absent, but a mento-Meckelian cartilage element is present, as in Batrachia. The palatines have a row of teeth, and are ankylosed with the pterygoids ; the premaxillae, dentaries, and vomers carry teeth. The absence of a cartilage roof to the nasal cavity is one of the many characters in which Proteus agrees with Menobranchus, but differs from Siren and Menopoma. The suspensorium has only a simple pedicle, as in Batrachia, and the hyoid arch is remarkable for the enormous hyo-mandibular element, which is larger even than in many sharks. The notochord is scarcely constricted by the amphicoelous vertebra, and the intervertebral cartilages are at a minimum of development. There are twenty-nine trunk vertebrae, one sacral, and twenty-eight caudal. The pectoral arch contains a long thin ossified scapula, a supra- scapula, and a long precoracoid separated by a deep notch from the main coracoid ; a fissure exists in the glenoid region. There is no sternum. The pectoral girdle is almost identical with that of Menobranchus. The pelvis has a narrow tapering ischial region, well-marked prepubes, and (?) a pointed epipubis ; this girdle also is extremely like that of Menobranchus, but notably different from that of the Axolotl, which is only a pseudo-perennibranchiate, and whose real affinities are with Salamander and Triton. The bones of the fore-arm and leg are unankylosed. There are three unossified carpal and tarsal elements, which Gegenbaur identifies as a radiale, ulnare, and a fused distal row ; such a carpus has no resemblance to either the em bryonic or adult stage of any other amphibian. In the heart the auricular septum is incomplete; the truncus arteriosus bifurcates into two trunks : each divides into two, and the posterior of these again into two, thus forming the three aortic arches on each side. The pulmonary vein sends part only of its blood into the heart, and part into the systemic veins. The blood-corpuscles are the largest known among vertebrates, and are comparable to the exceedingly large corpuscles of the Dipnoi. The brain is very small, straight, and embryonic in character. The gut is straight, and the stomach is a scarcely perceptible dilata tion. The thyroid (alone among amphibians) is unpaired. The lungs are long simple sacs, expanded distally, as in Menobranchus ; the trachea is excessively short, and the two cartilages which bound the glottis are continued into long processes which pass to the base of the lungs. As in Siren, Siredon, and others, the lateral branch of the vagus nerve is connected with a series of sense-organs forming a &quot;lateral line.&quot; These characters together indicate the exceedingly low position of Proteus among Amphibia ; it and its close relative the American Menobranchus are the lowest of living Amphibia. The creature seems to be abundant within its limited habitat ; it feeds on worms and small fishes, which in spite of its blindness it catches dexterously. It has bred in captivity, and lays round, isolated eggs, about a third of an inch in diameter. It changes colour slightly in the breeding season, and two rows of reddish spots make their appearance on the hinder part of the body. Such a change seems to indicate that the creature has not always lived in the absolute darkness in which it now spends its life. Individuals differ in some minor characters, and Cope (Journ. Acad. Philadelphia, v. p. 103, 1866) has based four new species on Hyrtl s specimens (P. zoisii, carrarx, xanthostichus, schreitersii). Merrem altered the name of the genus to Hypochthon (Gesch. der Amphibien, 1790-1820). Authorities. Proteus was first described by Laurenti in his Synopsis Reptilium (Vienna, 1768, p. 37) ; his locality, Lake Zirknitz, was erroneous. It was next mentioned by Scopoli (Aunits V. Hist. Nat., 1772). A full description, with plates, is given by Configliachi and Rusconi (Delprotco anguino di Laurenti, 4to, Pavia, 1819). The brain has been described by Treviranus (P. anguini encephalon, 4to, Gottingen, 1820), the spinal cord by Klaussner (Rackenmark dcs P., 4to, Munich, 1883), the skull by Parker (Plul. Trans., clxvii. pp. 568-573, 1877), the pectoral arch by Parker (Shoulder -girdle, p. 58, pi. iv. ), the pelvis by Hoffmann (Ncdcrl. Arch., iii. p. 144, 1877), the vertebral column by Mivart (P. Z. S., 1870), the lateral line, &c., by Bugnioii (Bull. Soc. Vaud., xii. pp. 259-316, 1873), the eye by Desfosses (Comptes rendus, xciv. p. 1729, 1882), the kidney by Solger (Alh. Gcs. Halle, xv. p. 405, 1882), the reproduction by Schultze (Zeits. f. wiss. Zool, xxvi. p. 350, 1876) and M. V. Chauvin (Zcits. f. wiss. Zool., xxxviii. 671- 685, 1883), and the affinities with Menobranchus by Van d. Hoeven (Arch. Neerl, i. p. 305, 1866 ; Ann. andMag. N. H., xviii. p. 363, 1866). See also anatomical details by Valentin (Repcrt. f. Anat., i. p. 282, 1837, vi. p. 353, 1841), and many smaller papers. PROTOGENES, a Greek painter, born in Caunus on the coast of Caria, but resident in Rhodes during the latter half of the 4th century B.C., was celebrated for the minute and laborious finish which he bestowed on his pictures, both in drawing and in colour. Apelle*, his great rival, standing astonished in presence of one of these works, could only console himself that he knew when to stop whereas Protogenes did not. So also Petrouius (Satyr., 83) experienced a sensation of horror at the too vivid realization of nature in which Protogenes indulged. On one picture, the lalysus, he spent seven years ; on another, the Satyr, he worked continuously during the