Salamander
3 of the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Salamander. All 3 are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a genus of reptiles, order Batrachia, allied to the frog, from which it differs in having an elongated body terminated by a tail, and four feet of eg equal length. length. There are no gills in the adult animal. Salamanders are endowed with astonishing power of fought with great bravery (480 b. c.), a an reproduction; and, when mutilated, their limbs, tail, and even their eyes, are restored at the end of two or three or six months. The common salamander of Europe has been celebrated from antiquity for its supposed power of braving fire, but this is a fable. It would seem that the United States produce a greater variety of salamanders than any other part of the globe. We shall particularize the following, among the land salamanders: S. subviolacea, a large stout species, blackish, with two rows of large, round, whitish spots on the back. S. fasciata; green; less than the preceding; blackish, with transverse bluish-white bands on the back; found from New Jersey to South Carolina, but rare. S. glutinosa; green; a more slender speof the body; blackish, sprinkled on the upper parts of the body with white specks. It is found in most parts of the United States, and as far N. as lat. 43°. S. longicauda; green; whitish, with numerous black specks. It is found in the Atlantic States, but is more frequently met with in the limestone caves of the West. S. bilineata, green; a small slender species; above brown, beneath yellow, with two or sometimes three indistinct black lines. It inhabits New England 4 and the Middle States. S. cirrigera, green; remarkable for having two short, fleshy cirri on the snout. It was found in the vicinity of New Orleans. S. erythronota (the most common species); blackish, with a broad red stripe on the back. The young are destitute of the red stripe. S. symmetrica (Harlan); reddish, with a row of bright orange ocellated spots on each side; length about three inches. The skin of this animal is rough, and apparently destitute of the mucous secretion common to the other species. Among the aquatic salamanders we shall particularize: S. dorsalis (Harlan); resembling the mbling the preceding in size and the general distribution of the colors; inhabmaculata green its South Carolina. S. ; , whitish, with numerous round specks of a reddish brown color. S. ingens; green; by far the largest species hitherto known; nearly a foot in length. It was discovered vicinity of New Orleans.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
a cold-blooded animal allied to the newt, toad, and frog. In mythology, the Salamander was a man-like monster who ate fire, breathed fire, and lived in fire without injury. Salamanders look like lizards but are not related to them. Zoologically one cannot get a better idea of the salamander, and also of the newt, than to consider it a case of a frog, a huge frog in many cases, that has halted at the last stage of the tadpole and gone no further. Put another way, if the salamander would go a little further, shake off his tail, and change his body once more as the tadpole finally does, he would be a frog. The most common salamander in America is the spotted salamander, black above with a row of round yellow spots running along each side of the back. Six inches long. Tail, two and one-half inches. Another common species is dark brown with yellow blotches in cross bands. Eight inches long. Salamanders may be known from lizards because they have neither scales nor claws. There are sixteen North American species-all pathetically harmless, helpless creatures. See Lizard
The Encyclopedia of Founding (1892)
When, through faulty charging, bad fuel, too heavy burdens of refractory ores, or from any fault in the shape of the blast-furnace a scaffold should take place, it sometimes occurs that an accumulation of cinder and cold metal is formed, which proves highly refractory, and extremely difficult to remove. This obstruction is technically termed a salamander. In some extreme cases, when all other means used for their removal has been obstinately resisted, dynamite has been successfully employed for that purpose. See SCAFFOLD.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Collier's called salamanders in 1921 "a genus of reptiles, order Batrachia"; they are now classed as amphibians (order Caudata), and "Batrachia" has dropped out of use, while the many species Collier's lumped under Salamandra are spread across dozens of genera — its S. erythronota is the red-backed salamander, Plethodon cinereus. Aiton's counted "sixteen North American species" in 1910; close to 200 are now recognized north of Mexico, with the southern Appalachians the richest region on earth for them, and roughly 800 species worldwide. The regenerative power both accounts marvel at is now a serious research field: the axolotl genome, one of the largest sequenced for any animal, was published in 2018 in the hope of explaining how limbs and eyes regrow. The mood has darkened, though — a skin fungus, Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans, described in 2013, has killed European fire salamanders in large numbers and prompted restrictions on the salamander trade. The Encyclopedia of Founding's quite different "salamander," the refractory mass of cinder and cold metal stuck in a blast furnace, is still called that by furnacemen.
Written for this edition, 2026.