Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 21.djvu/225

Rh S A L S A L 205 sluggish waters are wanting, and therefore the process of reproduction that occurs in S. mandosa is rendered im- possible. The black Salamandra has become adapted to its environment (1) by the slight changes in colour and structure which distinguish it from the spotted, and (2) by a modification in its reproductive processes, which elimi- nates the aquatic stage of existence from the life-history of the individual. It is to be noted that the stage character- ized by the presence of pinnate external gills is exhibited by the larva during its development in the oviduct, and the gills doubtless there perform their function. Fraulein von Chauvin x made the experiment of taking the larvae of S. atra from the pregnant female when they were in the branchiate condition, and placing them in water to see if they would survive and pass through their metamorphosis under these circumstances. On one occasion the experi- ment was perfectly successful in the case of one specimen ; the rest of the larvae died. The tailed Amphibia of Europe have from the very earliest times down to the present day been almost universally known in popular language as salainanders, and identified in the popular mind with, the salamander of myth and fable. 3 Besides the species of Sala- mandra there are, according to Boulanger (Brit. Mus. Cat., 1881), eighteen other species of Urodcla in Europe, of which fourteen belong to the genus TRITON (q.v.). Chioglossa lusitanica, Bocage, is distinguished by having a tongue supported anteriorly by a pro- tractile median pedicle and free everywhere else, and by having its tail cylindrical at the base but compressed at the end. It occurs in Spain and Portugal. Salamandrina pcrspicillata, Tschudi, occurs in Italy ; like Chioglossa, it belongs to the Mccodonta and is distin- guished by the following characters : tongue large, subtriangular, free everywhere except on anterior median line ; toes four ; tail slightly compressed ; a strong bony fronto-squamosal arch. Sjwlerpcs fuscus, Strauch, occurs in Italy and in France in the Alpes Maritimes. SALAMIS, in modern times called by the people KoAoupi (a ring-shaped cake), and by purists SaAa/w?, is an island in the Saronic Gulf, off the coast of Attica, Greece. It is said to have been called in ancient times by other names, Sciras, which associates it with the worship of Athena Sciras ; Cychreia, which connects it with the Eleusinian cultus and the sacred serpent (Kvxpe$j?s 6'<is) of Demeter ; and Pityussa. There was a small stream, Bocarus or Bocalia, in the island. The city, which bore the same name as the island, was originally situated on the south coast opposite yEgina, but was afterwards trans- ferred to a promontory on the east side nearer Athens. The transference corresponds to a total change in the 1 See Zeitschr.f. imss. Zoologie, vol. xxvii. p. 534, and C. von Siebold, ibid., p. 536 ; M. v. Chauvin, ibid., vol. xxiv. 2 Aristotle (H. A., v. 19) cites the salamander, which "when it walks through fire extinguishes it," as a proof that some animal frames are incombustible, and ^Elian (Nat. An., ii. 31) will have it that those who work with forges are familiar with this fact and when their bellows fail to quicken the flame know to look for a salamander and put things right by killing it. According to this form of the fable the salamander, as ^Elian expressly says, is not born of fire, nor does it live therein. On the contrary, according to Pliny (H. N., x. 67 sq., xxix. 4) it is of a cold complexion and emits a cold venom like aconite, but so virulent that even bread baked with wood of a tree on which a salamander has crept is poisonous. The touch of its saliva even on the foot, says Pliny, causes the hair to fall out. So Dioscorides speaks of salamander prepared in oil as a depilatory ; comp. Petronius, c. 107, and Burman's notes, and for late survivals in Europe of the belief in a deadly lizard, identified with the salamander, Bochart, Hierozoicon, bk. iv. c. 1. That the salamander extinguishes fire appears also in the PHYSIOLOOUS (q.v.), and so became a common part of mediaeval animal lore ; but the Arabic Physiologm (Land, Anec. Syr., iv. 166) speaks instead of a stone that quells fire. This stone is asbestos, the salamander of Marco Polo (i. 215, Yule), of whose fibres a sort of incombustible cloth was made, which was represented in the East as made of the hair of the salamander or of its plumage ; for the Arabs mixed up the sala- mander fable with that of the PHCENIX (q.v.) and were not sure whether it was beast or bird. In later story the salamander is represented as born and living in fire and so the name is used by cabbalistic moderns for the spirits of that element. Salamander's wool or hair as a name for asbestos occurs in Bacon and other English writers. Francis I. chose as his emblem a salamander with the motto, " J'y vis et je 1'eteins. " political relations of Salamis. It was originally connected, not with Attica, but with ^Egina and with Megara, the competitors of Athens in the struggle for supremacy in the Saronic Gulf. The most prominent heroes of the island, Telamon. Ajax, and Teucer, were ^Eacidaj from ^Egina. But about the end of the 7th century B.C. the war between Athens and Megara for the possession of Salamis was, under the guidance of Solon, determined in favour of Athens. A line of the Iliad (ii. 558) is said to have been interpolated by the Athenians in support of their claim to the island, while the Megarian version of the passage was quite different. The priestess of Athena Polias might not eat Attic cheese, but it was lawful for her to eat foreign or Salaminian cheese. Salamis, having come so late into the hands of the Athenians, retained, like Eleusis, more local independence than the other demes. The island remained subject to Athens in later history, except during the period 318 to 232 B.C., when it was abandoned to the Macedonian rule. The name of Salamis is famous chiefly on account of the great sea-fight, 480 B.C., in which the allied Greeks defeated the Persians under Xerxes. The battle took place beside the town of Salamis and the island of Psyttaleia, at the south-eastern end of the straits. A city on the east coast of Cyprus, near the river Pediaeus, said to have been founded by the Salaminian Teucer, son of Telamon, was also called Salamis. SAL AMMONIAC. See AMMONIAC, vol. i. p. 741. SALDANHA, JOAO CARLOS SALDANHA DE OLIVEIRA E DAUN (1791-1876). See PORTUGAL, vol. xix. pp. 553-554. SALE, an urban sanitary district of Cheshire, England, on the Bridgewater Canal and the Mersey, about 5 miles south of Manchester. At the beginning of the 19th cen- tury the greater part of the township was still waste and unenclosed. It owes its increase in population to the neighbourhood of Manchester and contains a number of handsome villas belonging to the wealthier classes. The Moorsland pleasure-grounds in the neighbourhood cover lOg- acres. There are national and British schools and a literary institute. Market gardening is extensively carried on. The population of the urban sanitary district (area, 2006 acres) in 1871 was 5573, and in 1881 it was 7915. SALE is one of the forms of CONTRACT (q.v.}. The law of contract is accordingly applicable as a whole to the law of sale. But the importance of the contract of sale demands a fuller treatment. The law of the United Kingdom and of the United States is based upon the Roman law in its later stage, as modified by the praetors and by legislation. But there are some considerable dif- ferences. In Roman law sale originally meant nothing more than barter ; but the introduction of coined money converted the contribution of one of the contracting parties into price (pretium), as distinguished from article of sale (merx) contributed by the other (see ROMAN LAW, vol. xx. pp. 700-701). Sale fell under the head of consensual contracts, i.e., those in which the causa or that which made the contract enforcible was consent. In all con- tracts of this class (except mandatum) consent really de- noted valuable consideration. The law in the case of movables and immovables was as far as might be the same. The price must be definite. Reduction of the terms to writing was optional; if a writing was used, either party was at liberty to withdraw before the com- pletion of the writing. If earnest or deposit (arrha) often a ring, sometimes a part of the price was given, it was by the legislation of Justinian made the measure of forfeit on rescission, the buyer losing what he had given as arrha, the seller restoring double its value. The seller did not warrant title ; his contract was not rem dare, to give the thing, but praestare emptori rem kabere licere, to