PROTEUS

A marine deity of the Greeks, celebrated for his gift of divination, and the power of changing his form, by which means he eluded those who resorted to him for information. Pro'tkus. In Zoology, this name was originally and very aptly applied to a genus of Infusories, which, during life, never for a single minute maintain the same form; this peculiarity is strikingly manifested, as in the common species called Proteus diffiuens. The term was subsequently used by Laurenti to designate a singular amphibious reptile, peculiar to certain subterranean waters in Carniola, and which, like the American siren, retains the external gills, together with internal lungs or air-bags, throughout life. [s. 1012]