Mattes, Traveling Olms

Traveling Olms: Local and Global Perspectives on the Research on Proteus anguinus (1700-1930)

Johannes MATTES Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna

doi.org/10.26337/2532-7623/MATTES

Riassunto: Menzionato per la prima volta dallo studioso sloveno Johann Valvasor nel 1689, Proteus anguinus, chiamato anche « blind cave salamander » o «human fish» dai locali per il colore della pelle rosata, rappresenta l'unico anfibio di abitazione in caverna in Europa. La sua presenza, attestata in circa 200 località in Slovenia e nelle aree carsiche dell’Italia e della Croazia, attirò l'attenzione di locali, visitatori e studiosi. Dopo la sua prima descrizione scientifica e illustrazione del 1768, alcuni esemplari di Proteo iniziarono a « viaggiare » attraverso l'Europa in piccoli acquari, come oggetti scientifici, doni o in forma di illustrazioni colorate, che destarono interesse. Basato su un approccio storico-culturale, l’articolo esamina queste reti a lunga distanza, i cicli di scambio e i regimi di accumulazione come un processo di circolazione della conoscenza locale e globale.

Abstract: Firstly mentioned by the Slovenian scholar Johann Valvasor in 1689, Proteus anguinus, also called «blind cave salamander» or «human fish» by locals because of its rose skin color, represents Europe’s only cave-dwelling amphibian. In contrast to its restriction to approximately 200 localities in Slovenia and the surrounding karst areas in Italy and Croatia, Proteus soon became a world-famous model for troglobites and attracted the attention of locals, visitors, and scholars. After its first scientific description and illustration in 1768, specimens of Proteus began to «travel» through Europe physically in small fish tanks, as scientific objects, gifts or in form of colorful illustrations, which aroused interest in this strange-looking animal. Based on a cultural-historical approach, the paper examines these long-distance networks, cycles of exchange and regimes of accumulation as a process of local and global knowledge circulation.

Keywords: Circulation, Animal, Local & Global, Slovenia

Introduction

Not only humans travel, also animals do. As pets, companions, scientific objects or curiosities of a collection, they are crossing borders, building bridges, connecting different spaces, cultural concepts, social groups, and are dealing with the different scales of the local and the global sphere. Circulating between these mutable fields and cultures of knowledge, collected specimens and other scientific objects often serve as cultural mediators and play a key role in the spatial concentration of knowledge in different environments. To better describe this multifaceted process of scientific exchange that does not normally progress in linear fashion, historians have coined the term «circulation»1. To put it concisely: Similar to communication, processes of exchange usually function multi-directional, are constituted through direction vectors, questions of extension or recession, transformation in the notion of speed, time and duration across places and scales of knowledge and are far more complex than we expect. Especially in the history of science, where the exchange of objects normally went hand in hand with the production and transformation of knowledge. Since the global turn in the history of science, the concept of circulation has become a buzzword for the field’s current areas of research, which mainly focuses on the practical aspects of transmission and exchange of knowledge, skills, trading, and material objects. Meanwhile, several serious publications were accomplished, among them Nicholas Thomas’ book «Entangled Objects»2 (1999) on the exchange between Pacific Islanders and European collectors or Lorraine Daston’s «Biographies of Scientific

1 Comprehensive work on the exchange of concepts and objects transmitted by mediators and go-betweens across cultures was accomplished by K. RAJ, Go-Betweens, Travelers, and Cultural Translators, in B. LIGHTMAN (ed.), A Companion to the History of Science, Hoboken, John Wiley & Sons, 2016, pp. 39-57. 2 N. THOMAS, Entangled Objects. Exchange, Material Culture and Colonialism in the Pacific, Harvard, Harvard University Press, 1997. 186 Mattes, Traveling Olms

Objects»3 (2000), introducing a broader understanding of objects and their cultural mutuality. In the article «Animals as Scientific Objects»4 (2017), the author Mike Michael addresses the transformation of animals to scientific objects using an example of biomedicine. A new and enlightening approach takes Marianne Klemun (2012) by focusing on the «Spaces in Between» museums, laboratories or botanical gardens, pointing out that natural objects finally «acquire through mobility their scientific, cultural or economic significance»5. This is of particular importance, because natural objects could be used either as a «scientific or cultural or economic object»6 and were transformed by different practices and cultures of knowledge.

Proteus anguinus _ a «traveling» object?

Taking these concepts into account, the present paper addresses the circulation of Proteus anguinus – Europe’s only cave-dwelling amphibian – between different communities of practice and its mutual transformations from an economic to a scientific and cultural object and vice versa. Special dedication will be laid on the process of traveling, where these «“moved” natural objects»7 are getting a new setting as cultural and scientific determined objects of knowledge. The present article examines these long-distance networks and regimes of accumulation as a cultural process of local and global knowledge circulation. Addressing these cycles of exchange, the paper serves as a contribution to the question of how different graduations of global and local practices influenced knowledge production. According to recent publications on the exchange of knowledge at a variety of scales and on the close relation between place and practice by Robert Kohler8, Paul Sillitoe9 and Jeremy Vetter10, it is necessary to contextualize the hierarchy and dichotomy of the global and local. Representing no simply static or bounded sites, their dimensions are currently repositioned and redefined. Both scales and spaces of knowledge are mutually linked to self-concepts and self-images of individuals, larger communities and cultures. In my case study, it is useful, to look closer on the «spaces in between» these spheres and the different scales of the local, national and the global. But why using a quite strange looking cave animal for a case study on circulating objects of natural curiosity? In contrast to its restriction to approximately 200 localities in Slovenia and the surrounding karst areas in Italy, Croatia and Bosnia (Fig. 1), the olm or Proteus anguinus – an aquatic salamander in the family Proteidae – became a world-famous model for troglobites (= species strictly bound to subterranean habitats) soon after its first scientific description in the 18th century11. Because of the olm’s adaptation to a life of complete darkness in its underground habitat, its regressed eyes and pigmentless white skin, Proteus anguinus attracted the attention of locals, visitors and international scholars, who tried to enlighten the olm’s life in the underground and particularly its reproduction as an example for understanding evolution and adaption processes to natural environments.12 Until 1808, only four habitats,

3 L. DASTON, The Coming into Being of Scientific Objects, in L. DASTON (ed.), Biographies of Scientific Objects, Chicago/London, University of Chicago Press, 2000, pp. 1-14. 4 M. MICHAEL, Animals as Scientific Objects, in L. KALOF (ed.), The Oxford Handbook on Animal Studies, New York, Oxford University Press, 2017, pp. 380-296. 5 M. KLEMUN, Introduction: ‘Moved’ Natural Objects – ‘Spaces in Between’, in «HOST Journal of History of Science and Technology» V (2012/1), pp. 9-16. 6 Ivi, p. 12. 7 Ibidem. 8 R. KOHLER, Labscapes. Naturalizing the Lab, in «History of Science» XL (2002), pp. 473-501. 9 P. SILLITOE, Local Science vs. Global Science. Approaches to Indigenous Knowledge in International Development, New York/Oxford, Berghahn, 2007. 10 J. VETTER, Knowing Global Environments. New Historical Perspectives on the Field Sciences, New Brunswick/New Jersey/London, Rutgers University Press, 2011. 11 See for an actual, but compact description of Proteus anguinus and the world’s three other cave dwelling amphibians, the Grotto Salamander (Typhlotriton spelaeus), the Texas Blind Salamander (Eurycea rathbuni), and the Georgia Blind Salamander (Haideotriton wallacei): D.R. KHANN, P.R. YADAV, Biology of Amphibia, New Delhi, Discovery Publishing House, 2005, pp. 94-99. 12 Comprehensive work on the popularization of Proteus anguinus for science and tourism has been carried out by T.R. th SHAW, Proteus for scientists and tourists. A history of its 19 century collection and captivity, in «ENDINS» XXVIII 187 Mattes, Traveling Olms respectively caves, were known and in 1850 not more than 31 finding spots were recorded13. In fact, Proteus anguinus represents an exceptionally «local» and endemic animal that quickly became of global importance for zoologists and collectors.

Souvenirs for curious travelers: Proteus anguinus as an economic object

The first, who literally reported on frequent findings of olms by locals, was the Carniolan natural historian Johann Weichard Valvasor in 1689. After examining some specimens that a farmer brought him from the river «Bela» in the valley of «Vrhnika» (Slovenia), Valvasor concluded, «that the expected lindworm has a length of a short span and its body is formed like a lizard. Summarized: it is an earthling (vermin) that is quite common. Simple-minded people have tried to see a lindworm in it»14. In fact, Proteus have been known by country people under the name «human fish» or «white fish» because of their white to rose skin color long before they attracted the attention of scholars. During flood conditions or heavy rainfalls especially in the months of August and September, olms can be sept out to the surface and found in karst springs, rivers or even in wells of villages, where they attracted the attention of the inhabitants. In overall, locals played a key role for the collection, distribution and circulation of Proteus. As the small-scale topography, rough climate and rocky soils in the Slovenian karst mostly allow only low agricultural production, selling olms became an additional income and since the 1830s even a profitable business for locals. Therefore, the find spots of Proteus were kept secret or the collection of Proteus became integrated into regular cave tours, which were offered to travelers, who regularly passed through the Dinaric karst on their way from the imperial capital of Vienna to Trieste at the Adriatic coast or vice versa:

During the visit […] to the Magdalena Grotto, the most remarkable parts of the cave were brilliantly illuminated […]. Charon's boat, issuing from a dark recess, came gliding along over the black surface of the pool. The grim ferryman drew up his net before the august visitors, and presented them with six Protei that had been entangled in its meshes. […] The guides to the grotto of Adelsberg have always got a supply on hand, and sell them for about two florins a-piece15.

The location of the olm’s habitat along one of the ancient trading and transportation routes from Central Europe to the Mediterranean Sea had a deep impact on the way specimens were distributed along the road and finally got in the property of curious collectors or scientific cabinets. As Trevor R. Shaw argues, live or dead Proteus were even offered at the fish markets of Trieste, Pula, and Pazin as curiosities or sometimes even for eating since the beginning of the 19th century. In addition, specimens were also sold to visitors as souvenirs at travel inns or during annual folk or so-called «cave-festivals» in Slovenian villages16. As a Proteus can become more than 100 years old and even survive without nourishment for longer periods of time, the olm’s close connection to its natural habitat and its ability to stay alive even under harsh conditions and changing environments seemed paradoxical for many travelers. However, many specimens did not survive the rough road conditions or changes of climate before reaching their final destination, where the transformation process to a scientific object came to an end and the specimens were reintegrated in a mostly permanent museal context. Similarly, William Henderson reported on his Proteus in 1862:

(2005), pp. 51-60. See also: T.R. SHAW, Proteus for sale and for science in the 19th century, in «Acta Carsologica» XXVIII (1999/1), pp. 229-304. 13 L. FITZINGER, Über den Proteus anguinus, in «Sitzungsberichte der Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftlichen Classe der Kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften in Wien» V (1850), p. 293. 14 J.W. VALVASOR, Die Ehre dess Herzogthums Crain, vol. 1, Ljubljana/Nürnberg, Endter, 1689, p. 597. Already Agricola reported on the findings of Proteus, but recognized them as larvae of a lindworm. See: G. AGRICOLA, De animantibus subterraneis liber, Basel, Froben, 1549, p. 67f. 15 G. HARTWIG, The Subterranean World, New York, Scribner, Welford & Co., 1871, p. 166f. 16 SHAW, Proteus for scientists and tourists, pp. 51-60. 188 Mattes, Traveling Olms

His adventures and the inconveniences he has suffered, have not been few. […] He was sorely tried Venice, where the weather was unusually sultry; and five days posting in an open carriage, along the shores of the Mediterranean, under the blazing sun, might have been expected to produce a catastrophe, but he is a brave little fellow, and survived it all. […] On leaving Adelsberg I first placed him in a soda water bottle and this again in a small leathern bag hung outside my coat. During our journey to Trieste the bottle by some ill chance was broken and on our arrival we found poor Proteus lying on a bed of broken glass. A catastrophe of this kind ended our far famed Lambton worm, but very little did its tiny Styrian cousin heed it. On being placed in a bowl of water, the creature performed so many gambols that we were satisfied all was well. On reaching Marseilles, […] we prepared […] a bath for him; placing sand and some stalactites, which we have procured from Postojna, […] that he could enjoy walks on dry land varied according to his fancy with occasional water dips17.

During the 19th century, road improvements, shorter traveling times and published instructions to treat olms in captivity properly shaped the modes, how specimens circulated. While until the 1830s most of the traded Proteus were already dead and hardly suitable as souvenirs, in later years the selling of living specimens became a well running business, especially for cave guides and other locals. As many scientific experiments could only be conducted with living specimens, the methods of transportation had an immediate influence on the Proteus’ value as an economic or scientific object. Nevertheless, cautionary comments not to spoil habitats, as can be found in the popular book «Subterranean World» of 1871, constitute an exception:

The best method for transporting the Proteus is now perfectly understood, and living specimens have been conveyed as far as Russia, Hungary, and Scotland. Their food need is a frequent supply of fresh water, and a careful removal of all light. It is recommended to lay a piece of stalactite from their native grotto in the vase in which they are transported. When resting or sleeping, they coil themselves round the stone, as if tenderly embracing it. In this manner, they have already been kept above five years out of their caverns. […] But as hundreds of specimens have since found their way to the cabinets of naturalists, to be observed, dissected, or bottled up in spirits, their number has very much decreased18.

After the opening of Postojnska jama as a show cave around 1819 and the consequent foundation of a «k.k. Grottenverwaltung» (= Imperial Cave Administration in Postojna), which had to manage the steady growing number of visitors from 14.000 in 1839 to 131.000 in 190919, cave visits became a highly structured form of mobility20. Fees, the duration of a tour, guiding and the used lighting, but not the sale of olms were regulated. While local scholars sent olms abroad as gifts or signs of recognition (hoping to be mentioned in scientific papers), foreign visitors of the Dinaric karst served as go-betweens and mediators, by entangling various spaces of knowledge. Not few of them were reputable scholars as the mathematician Charles Babbage, professor at Cambridge University, who bought a couple of olms for possibly interested colleagues and finally distributed them globally to different learned institutions:

Occasionally I met, in the course of my travels, with various things, which […] might yet be highly interesting to others. If the cost suited my purse and […] the specimen of importance, I have in many instances purchased them. Such was the case with respect to that curious creature the proteus anguinus […]. When I visited the caves of Adelsburg [sic!, Postojna], […] I purchased all I could get, being six in number. I conveyed them in large bottles full of river water, which I changed every night. During the greater part of their journey the bottles were placed in large leathern bags lashed to the barouche seat of my calash. The first of these pets died at Vienna and another at Prague. After three months, two only survived, and reached Berlin, where they also died. […] On several occasions when I have visited them at night with a candle, one or more have jumped out of their watery home. These rare animals were matters of great interest to many naturalists whom I visited in my rambles, and procured for me several very agreeable acquaintances. When their gloomy lives terminated I preserved them in spirits, and sent the specimens to the collections of our own universities, to India, and some of our colonies21.

Quickly, an observation or even a purchase of an olm became a must for learned visitors as the English naturalist Francis Galton. In 1840, he conveyed that he traveled with a «bottle containing the two Proteus under [his] thin coat for fear of the water freezing» while crossing the Alps: «I bought two of the curious creatures called Proteus. […] They were the first living creatures of their kind brought to

17 W. HENDERSON, Notes and Reminiscences of my Life as an Angler, London, Spottiswoode & Co., 1876, p. 319. 18 HARTWIG, The Subterranean World, p. 167. 19 T.R. SHAW, A. ČUK, Slovene Karst and Caves in the Past, Ljubljana, ZRC Publishing, 2015, p. 201. 20 See J. MATTES, Reisen ins Unterirdische. Eine Kulturgeschichte der Höhlenforschung, Wien/Köln/Weimar, Böhlau, 2015. 21 C. BABBAGE, Passages from the Life of a Philosopher, London, Longman/Green, 1864, p. 384. 189 Mattes, Traveling Olms

England. I gave them to King's College; one soon died, the other lived and was yearly lectured on, as I heard, until fate in the form of a cat ended him»22. Visualizing, what is normally hidden or treasured by nature, played a key role for the popularization of Proteus. Therefore, living olms began to «travel» through Europe both physically in small fish tanks as well as in the form of colorful illustrations, which aroused interest in this strange-looking animal and shaped its public perception. It is remarkable that many depictions of Proteus published in Bertuch’s «Bilderbuch für Kinder»23 (Fig. 2), in Treitschke’s «Naturhistorischer Bildersaal des Tierreiches»24 or in Brehm’s reference book «Tierleben»25 do not show the olm in its natural habitat. By putting it in a new context, order and relationship to other animals, the process of depiction represents a space in between, where the transformation of an economic object to an issue of scientific significance took place. However, specimens of Proteus were not only purchased as souvenirs in Slovenia. After the construction of a railway connection between Vienna and Trieste in 1857, olms were regularly sold in both towns directly to collectors and aquarium-owners. Therefore, cavers or speleologists often served as mediators like Rudolf Pirker, who regularly caught olms in newly discovered caves in Slovenia and transported them to Vienna, where he sold the specimens to pet shops or scientists as the zoologist Paul Kammerer26. The Austrian Archduke Johann – also known as a public promotor of science – repeatedly received olms from the Carniolan naturalist Sigmund Zois and served as a role model by keeping Proteus in his aquarium in Vienna and in later years in an artificial grotto at his country estate in Styria. Many wealthy townsmen and popular scholars followed his example. As the botanist Richard von Wettstein, Vice- President of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, visited Postojna, he bought a Proteus for the aquarium of his son (later zoologist) Otto, who took care of the olm as his pet and studied the specimen for many years27. Proteus also traveled to the World Exhibitions in Paris and Vienna in 1867 and 1873 and were presented to visitors at the London Zoo and at the Vivarium in Vienna28. Although a Proteus can get more than 100 years old, the breeding of olms in captivity was not successful until the end of the 19th century, so the demand of new specimens from Carniola was quite high.

Specimens for experiments & dissection: Proteus anguinus as a scientific object

In 1761, the Jesuit Franciscus Wulfen, teacher in Ljubljana, brought two living exemplars of Proteus to Johannes Scopoli, mine doctor in Idrija, who probably painted them and sent the olm’s description as a form of scholarly gift to Carl von Linné and the Royal Society of Sciences in Uppsala29. As Scopoli’s advice to include the animal under the name «blind Lacerta» in Linné’s «Systema Naturæ» of 1766 was not followed by the Swedish scholar, the young Viennese naturalist Josephus Nicolaus Laurenti took the opportunity to publish the first description of the olm under the name «Proteus anguinus» in his PhD thesis30. The description, which was not longer than 10 lines, came along with an illustration (Fig. 3), becoming a role model for later popular drawings of Proteus.

22 F. GALTON, Memories of My Life, New York, E.P. Dutton and Company, 1909, p. 56. 23 F.J. BERTUCH, C. BERTUCH, Bilderbuch für Kinder, vol. 8, Weimar, 1813, p. Amphibia XXXVI, No. 65. 24 B. MERREM, Der Laurentische Olm. Hypochthon Laurentii, in Naturhistorischer Bildersaal des Thierreiches, edited by Friedrich Treitschke, vol. 4, Pesth/Leipzig, Hartleben, 1843, pp. 20-21. 25 A.E. BREHM, O. BOETTGER, E. PECHUEL-LOESCHE (eds.), Brehms Tierleben. Allgemeine Kunde des Tierreichs, vol. VII: Die Kriechtiere und Lurche, Leipzig/Wien, Bibliographisches Institut, 1892, pp. 789-792. 26 H. SALZER, H. TRIMMEL, Nachruf auf Renatus Rudolf Pirker, in «Die Höhle» XXXIII (1982), pp. 149-152. 27 J. EISELT, A.o. Universitätsprofessor Dr. phil. Otto Wettstein-Westersheimb †, in «Annalen des Naturhistorischen Museums in Wien» LXX (1967), pp. 1-18. 28 See SHAW, Proteus for scientists and tourists, pp. 51-60. 29 See the Letter from Giovanni Antonio Scopoli to Carl Linnaeus, 3 May 1762, The Linnaeus' Collections, The Linnaean Society of London, L3077. See for a comprehensive overview on the correspondence between Scopoli and Linné: D. SOBAN (ed.), A. Scopoli, Carl Linnaeus. Dopisovanje/Correspondence 1760-1775, Ljubljana, Natural History Society of Slovenia, 2004. 30 J.N. LAURENTI, Josephi Nicolai Laurenti specimen medicum exhibens synopsin reptilium emendatam cum experimentis circa venena et antidota reptilium Austriacorum, Vienna, Johann Thomas von Trattner, 1768. 190 Mattes, Traveling Olms

As indicated in Fig. 4, the exchange of specimens among scholars until 1800 was quite single- directed and led mostly from Carniola (today Slovenia) or Trieste (Italy) over the common transportation routes to the imperial capital of Vienna, which served as a center for the specimens’ international exchange. As Sigmund Zois did not start to send Proteus abroad before 1800, all specimens from Carniola went through the hands of Viennese scholars, who had the privilege to compare the exemplars and study their physiology. Karl von Schreibers, in later years director of the Imperial Natural History Cabinet in Vienna and coordinator of the Austrian Brazil Expedition, played a key role in the global spread of knowledge on Proteus. Being the first, who dissected an exemplar, the 26-years-old Schreibers was able to publish an article in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society in London in 1801, which made not only the Proteus, but also the author internationally known. The proposal to write an article on Proteus came from the Royal Society itself, where Schreibers gave a lecture during his visit in London in 179931. In later years, Schreibers even presented some exemplars of Proteus to colleagues in Paris and London and was quite active in sending specimens he received from Carniola to scholars all over the world. As the time-consuming transport of living olms to Vienna was not successful until 19th century, local scholars and learned mediators received a central position in knowledge production. While they supported Viennese scholars with dead exemplars for dissection, they also observed living Proteus in their aquaria in Carniola and reported their state regularly to Vienna. Letters of Zois to Schreibers contain several very accurate descriptions of the olms’ behavior, shape and actual health condition:

As all attempts to send it alive to Vienna, (a distance of about 250 English miles,) have been in vain, I [Schreibers] have had no opportunity of observing its nature and actions in the living state; I can, therefore, only communicate the few observations, which Baron Zois had the opportunity of making, he having had the good luck to get to get some specimens alive, and to keep one of them so during several days. His observations were communicated to me, with the specimens, in the month of September 1795, in November 1799, and in January 1800. […] It is of a light red colour, when alive; and the branchial appendages, on the sides of the head, are of a deep blood colour. In spirit, it soon loses all tinge of redness. Inactivity, and the above described singular creeping motion, seem to be peculiar to this animal; and, although it came several times in the course of a day to the surface of the water, and even rose above it, it passed the greatest part of its time at the bottom. In ascending in the water, it seemed only to make use of the tail; ascending as slowly and smoothly as it creeps. Sometimes Baron Zois observed it to use a motion like that of fishes, throwing itself about in the water with considerable force and swiftness32.

This form of cooperation between local and Viennese scholars changed profoundly during the 19th century, when practical knowledge of keeping Proteus in captivity improved. While local scholars focused on the reconstruction of the olms range by visiting caves or collecting reports on Proteus sightings, their Viennese colleagues examined the specimens physiologically and compared them during dissections. Frequently, the animal’s transformation to an object of research started before the specimens came into the hands of scholars or were bottled up in spirit. By observing the olm’s behavior, travelers often sent the specimens to scholars accompanied by detailed reports that were incorporated into scientific papers. The book chapter «The Proteus or Immortality» in Humphry Davy’s «Consolations in Travel» represents a good example to illustrate, how close observations of fascinated travelers were to general scientific questions:

I see them; they are the Protei; now I have them in my fishing net, and now they are safe in the pitcher of water. At first view, you might suppose this animal to be a lizard, but it has the motions of a fish. Its head, and the lower part of its body and its tail, bear a strong resemblance to those of the eel; but it has no fins; and its curious branchial organs are not like the gills of fishes; they form a singular vascular structure, as you see, almost like a crest, round the throat, which may be removed without occasioning the death of the animal, who is likewise furnished with lungs. […] I was exceedingly anxious to see the Proteus, and came here with the guide in the evening of the day I arrived at Adelsberg; but though we examined the bottom of the cave with the greatest care, we could find no specimens. We returned the next morning and were more fortunate, for we discovered five close to the bank on the mud covering the bottom of the lake; […]. This fact of their appearance during the night, seemed to me so extraordinary, that I could hardly avoid the fancy that they were new creations […]. My reveries became discursive, I was carried in imagination back to the primitive state of the globe, when the great animals of the sauri

31 C. SCHREIBERS, A Historical and Anatomical Description of a Doubtful Amphibious Animal of Germany, in «Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London» XCI (1801), pp. 241-264. 32 Ivi, p. 244, 246. 191 Mattes, Traveling Olms

kind were created under the pressure of a heavy atmosphere; and my notion on this subject was not destroyed, when I heard from a celebrated anatomist, to whom I sent the specimens I had collected, that the organization of the spine of the Proteus was analogous to that of one of the sauri, the remains of which are found in the older secondary strata33.

Representing an intersection in these networks of exchange, the Viennese zoologist Leopold Fitzinger was able to examine even 479 exemplars – among them 140 living specimens of 11 different habitats until 185034. Although the Imperial Cave Administration in Postojna and local scholars sent potentially pregnant specimens to scholars like the Viennese anatomist Josef Hyrtl, all attempts to dissect a pregnant olm were unsuccessful and the question of its reproduction rested unsolved35. Therefore, specimens of Proteus were not only used by scholars for anatomical dissection, but also as laboratory animals. Finally, the first, who was successful in breeding Proteus in an aquarium, was the naturalist Marie von Chauvin in Germany in 188336. To dispel any possible doubts, her paper on the olm’s reproduction came along with an illustration of the Proteus’ eggs. As fear raised, that the artificial conditions in fish tanks and terrariums may have an influence on the form of reproduction, more and more efforts were made to adapt the conditions in an aquarium to the Proteus’ natural habitat. Likewise, olms as scientific objects and laboratory animals became more and more integrated in an experimental setting. After the establishment of a biospeleological laboratory in the catacombs under the «Jardin des Plantes» in Paris in 1896, the French zoologist Armand Viré conducted experiments with 30 Proteus, which he received from the Imperial Cave Administration in Postojna37. Public interest aroused, when the Viennese zoologist Paul Kammerer regularly reported in the newspaper on his experiments on Proteus’ sensory system and regressed eyes. After exposing young olms to red light, Kammerer was able to produce specimens with large and developed eyes. For his experiments, the zoologist used a former water reservoir as an underground habitat for 40 Proteus, which he had bought partly from cavers38. Besides his laboratory experiments, Kammerer also visited the caves «Škocjanske jame» (Slovenia) in September 1897, where he observed the olms in their natural habitat39. In spite of the experimental setting, for Kammerer «finally the olm, whose history seemed to be come out of the caves’ darkness into the bright light of our knowledge, is still the mysterious creature, whose habits we don’t know, because its home is kept secretly deep under the earth’s surface»40.

A Symbol of national heritage: Proteus anguinus as a cultural object

Indications for the cultural significance of Proteus as a symbol of fertility and reproduction can be traced back to the 10th or 11th century, but are particularly rare. The best example is an artistic relief on a weel brim designed during the High Middle Ages. Showing two Proteus with wings instead of their

33 H. DAVY, Consolations in Travel, or, the Last Days of a Philosopher, London, John Murray, 1830, p. 325, 328. 34 FITZINGER, Über den Proteus anguinus, p. 297. 35 J. HYRTL, Über den Proteus anguinus, in «Sitzungsberichte der Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftlichen Classe der Kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften» V (1850), pp. 303. See also P. CONFIGLIACHI, M. RUSCONI, Observations on the Natural History and Structure of the Proteus anguinus, in «Edinburgh Philosophical Journal», IV (1821), pp. 398- 406. 36 M.V. CHAUVIN, Die Art der Fortpflanzung des Proteus anguinus, in «Zeitschrift für wissenschaftliche Zoologie» XXXVIII (1883), pp. 671-685. See also: E. ZELLER, Über die Fortpflanzung des Proteus anguinus und seine Larve, in «Verein für vaterländische Naturkunde in Württemberg» XLV (1889), pp. 131-138. An overview provides O. HAMANN, Europäische Höhlenfauna, Jena, Hermann Costenoble, 1896. 37 A. VIRE, Sur trente exemplaires de Protées récemment rapportés au Muséum, in «Bull. Muséum d’Histoire Naturelle» VI (1900/4), pp. 174-175. 38 See G.B. MÜLLER (ed.), Vivarium. Experimental, quantitative, and theoretical Biology at Vienna’s Biologische Versuchsanstalt, Cambridge/London, MIT Press, 2017. See also an original report on Kammerer’s work in a Viennese newspaper: H. GLASER, Vivarium. Neues aus der Biologie, in «Neues Wiener Tagblatt» (8/22/1919), pp. 1-5. 39 F. KUNAUER, Neues aus der Naturgeschichte des Grottenolms, in «Wiener Zeitung» CXCIV (8/22/1913), p. 7. 40 P. KAMMERER, Die Fortpflanzung des Grottenolms (Proteus anguinus Laurenti), in «Verhandlungen der Zoologisch- botanischen Gesellschaft in Wien» LXII (1907), p. 291f. See also: P. KAMMERER, Experimente über Fortpflanzung, Farbe, Augen und Körperreduktion bei Proteus anguineus Laur., in «Archiv für Entwicklungsmechanik» XXXIII (1912/3-4), pp. 349-461. 192 Mattes, Traveling Olms external gills during pairing, the ornament symbolized the birth of water in a natural spring41. As Josef Vornatscher argues, the well brim was originally localized next to the Chiesa S. Nicolò in Venice, which was probably not its primary location. In 1895, the weel brim came into the property of the Imperial Art History Museum in Vienna and was exhibited for several decades in one of the yards of the museum’s building. Although Proteus quickly gained global recognition during the 19th century, the olm became simultaneously a symbol of locality and regional or national situatedness. While the natural history collections in many schools of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy were equipped with specimens of Proteus during the 1890s, the public perception of the olm was linked closely to its habitat in the Dinaric karst and the Habsburg Empire. For example, the symbolic depiction of the Proteus in a drop cap of the chapter on natural history in the 24-volume encyclopedia «Die österreichisch-ungarische Monarchie in Wort und Bild» (The Austro-Hungarian Monarchy in Word and Picture)42 underlines the olm’s position as a mediator between supranational and local discourses (Fig. 5). After World War I, when Italian forces took control over major parts of Slovenia, the exchange and trading of olms were reorganized and newly oriented towards the city of Trieste. As Italian officials increasingly oppressed the use of Slovenian language and literature and the local population began to meet secretly in caves like the Jama Vilenica pri Lokvi to practice their language, also Proteus anguinus became a symbol of national natural heritage and Slovene identity. While Schreibers has called the Proteus once an «animal of Germany»43 or Viennese journalists described the olm as a «typical Austrian character»44 on the eve of World War I, national rivalries during the 1920s made the «once Austrian, now between Italy and Yugoslavia divided Proteus»45 to an apple of discord. Therefore, it is not astonishing that the first popular scientific magazine in Slovene language, published in 1933, was called «Proteus». To underline its international significance, the cover of the journal’s first issue did not show a Proteus, but one of its global relatives: the Texas blind salamander that was described scientifically not before 1897 and whose habitat is limited to only seven underground localities in Texas. In the leading article of the journal’s first issue, the editor claimed the cultural and scientific significance of the Proteus for the Slovene speaking population by emphasizing the need of local research and nature protection:

The whole world participated in the research on Proteus anguinus. Nevertheless, it is our olm, the olm of your people. And this is perhaps the only example in the history of science that the local people, the local scientists have the final say. The Proteus is a symbol of tough research, a symbol of scientific knowledge, a symbol of local research and their mission for protecting our national natural heritage46.

While the Slovenian population increasingly claimed the cultural significance of Proteus, the Italian state began to strictly control and supervise the exchange of olms as scientific or cultural objects. After Benito Mussolini has ordered the foundation of the «Instituto Italiano di Speleologica» (Speleological Institute of Italy) in Postojna in 1929, a well-equipped biospeleological research station was established in Postojnska jama only one year afterwards (Fig. 6). Besides aquaria and terraria for different kinds of cave fauna, the laboratory also consisted of several naturally formed experimental basins for Proteus and understood itself as a counterpart to the «Biologische Versuchsanstalt» (Biological-Experimental Research Center) in Vienna47. On the one hand, the establishment of the laboratory in Postojnska jama was a result of the higher significance of field research and the growing relevance of studies on subterranean ecology, which were enhanced through the adaption of the laboratory to the animals’ natural habitat. On the other hand, the research station also enabled a better supervision, direction and control

41 J. VORNATSCHER, Seit wann ist der Grottenolm bekannt?, in «Die Höhle» XXIII (1972/2), pp. 41-44. 42 R.v. HABSBURG (ed.), Die österreichisch-ungarische Monarchie in Wort und Bild, vol. 2: Übersichtsband, Naturgeschichtlicher Teil, Wien, k.k. Hof- und Staatsdruckerei Alfred von Hölder, 1886, p. 310. 43 C. SCHREIBERS, A Historical and Anatomical Description of a Doubtful Amphibious Animal of Germany, p. 241. 44 A. KOELSCH, Aus der Natur, in «Neues Wiener Tagblatt» XLVI (6/12/1912), p. 1. 45 A. KRONFELD, Professor Dr. Hans Przibram, in «Neues Wiener Journal» 9961 (7/31/1921), p. 8. 46 P. GROŠELJ, Kako so odkrili človeško ribico, in «Proteus» I (1933/1), p. 7. 47 E. DUDICH, Die speläobiologische Station zu Postumia und ihre Bedeutung für die Höhlenkunde, in «Speläologisches Jahrbuch» XIII-XIV (1932/33), pp. 51-65. 193 Mattes, Traveling Olms of local knowledge production and its connection to research institutions in Italy like the University of Bologna that became a scientific partner of this new biospeleological laboratory in Postojna. Although Proteus – as part of the cave fauna – became protected by law in 1922, a well-flourishing black market came into existence that persisted until the 1980s. Exchanging olms developed to a highly political issue, especially for the establishment of artificial habitats like in the cave «Hermannshöhle» near Rübeland (Germany), where the geologist and paleontologist Walter Biese was successful in settling five specimens from Postojnska jama in an artificial pond in 193248. After World War II, the exchange and insertions of new specimens in Hermannshöhle to enforce reproduction were carried out as a socialist fraternal aid between the newly founded Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia and the German Democratic Republic.

Conclusion

To summarize my paper, since the beginning of the research on Proteus anguinus, scholars were fascinated by the olm’s adaption to its local habitat and its form of reproduction. While during the 18th century the exchange of specimens and knowledge between local scholars and their colleagues in European capitals was mostly single-directed and bound to the transportation routes, the circulation of Proteus as objects of science and curiosity became more complex in the second half of the 19th century. Due to the development of tourist and travel infrastructure, many foreign scholars were able to visit the Proteus’ habitats themselves and were no longer dependent on reports of local researchers. Similarly, Proteus began to travel through Europe as polymetaphoric and entangling objects, whose significance changed quite dramatically depending on the context, in which the exchange and circulation of specimens took place. In many cases, the changing meaning of objects as targets of science, economy or culture was interwoven and interfered with each other. It may not be forgotten that the interaction between collectors and curators regarding scientific objects is often determined by economic issues. Under this aspect, «spaces in between» or traveling as a process, where the transformation of meaning occurred, are of specific significance. In the case of Proteus, the practice of mobility and the routes that the objects took on their way through Europe, shaped the modes how olms were examined, described, collected, and exhibited by curious travelers and/or scholars. Today, Proteus still travel through Europe in form of colorful illustrations on Slovenian emblems, although they are no longer depicted on Slovenian coins or used as gifts for high state guests, as it occurred during Tito’s regime in Yugoslavia. Nevertheless, the former biospeleological research station in Postojna, nowadays transformed to a vivarium for Proteus, represents one of main attractions of the show cave «Postojnska jama» that is visited by more than 600.000 visitors each year. Moreover, as a female Proteus began to lay eggs in one of the aquaria in Postojna in 2016, several international scientific magazines and newspapers reported on this extraordinary event49.

48 W. BIESE, Etwas vom Grottenolm, in «Der Harz» (1932/5), pp. 65-66. 49 M. CRIST, What’s Behind Slovenia’s Love Affair with a Salamander?, in «The New Yorker» (4/25/2016), https://www.newyorker.com/tech/elements/whats-behind-slovenias-love-affair-with-a-salamander 194 Mattes, Traveling Olms

Archive Sources

Letter from Giovanni Antonio Scopoli to Carl Linnaeus, 3 May 1762, The Linnaeus' Collections, The Linnaean Society of London, L3077

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Titles of figures

Fig. 1: Range of Proteus anguinus and unnatural occurrences Fig. 2: Popular illustration of Proteus anguinus in Bertuch’s «Bilderbuch für Kinder» (1813), p. Amphibia XXXVI, No. 65. Fig. 3: First illustration of Proteus anguinus by Laurenti (1768), p. Tab. V. Fig. 4: Exchange of Proteus (bottled in spirit) until 1800. Fig. 5: Drop cap with a Proteus in the 24-volume encyclopedia «Die österreichisch-ungarische Monarchie in Wort und Bild» (Austro-Hungarian Monarchy in Word and Picture), vol. II, p. 310. Fig. 6: Photo of the biospeleological research station in Postojnska jama (around 1932). See Dudich (1932/33), p. 53.

197 Mattes, Traveling Olms

Fig. 1: Range of Proteus anguinus and unnatural occurrences

198 Mattes, Traveling Olms

Fig. 2 Popular illustration of Proteus anguinus in Bertuch’s «Bilderbuch für Kinder» (1813), p. Amphibia XXXVI, No. 65

199 Mattes, Traveling Olms

Fig. 3: First illustration of Proteus anguinus by Laurenti (1768), p. Tab. V

200 Mattes, Traveling Olms

Fig. 4: Exchange of Proteus (bottled in spirit) until 1800

201 Mattes, Traveling Olms

Fig. 5: Drop cap with a Proteus in the 24-volume encyclopedia «Die österreichisch-ungarische Monarchie in Wort und Bild» (Austro-Hungarian Monarchy in Word and Picture), vol. II, p. 310

202 Mattes, Traveling Olms

Fig. 6: Photo of the biospeleological research station in Postojnska jama (around 1932). See Dudich (1932/33), p. 53

203