Royal Academy of Sciences of Paris. 157 



it was remarked that it never presented food to the same head 

 twice in succession, and if it had commenced with the right hand 

 one, it invariably finished with the left. The two heads and necks 

 are of equal dimensions, and perfectly well formed. M. Rigal had 

 endeavoured to preserve the animal from the cold of the winter 

 before last, by keeping' it in bed during the night, and found it one 

 morning smothered to death. It has been preserved in spirits of 

 wine, and deposited with the Secretary of the Academy. 



Collection of Natural History. At the same meeting, M. Cuvier 

 mentioned in terms of high eulogium the collection brought from 

 India by M. Delamare-Picot, which he characterized as the most 

 extensive ever made by an individual unaided by funds from govern- 

 ment. In the zoological department it comprises 53 species of mam- 

 miferae, 123 of fishes, 52 of Crustacea, 150 of insects, 40 of zoophytes, 

 30 of reptiles, and 75 of birds; there were more than 400 of vege- 

 tables. Many of these species were hitherto unknown, and others 

 were wanting in the Museum of the Jardin des Plantes, particularly 

 the rhinoceros without horns, known by the name of the rhinoceros 

 of Java. The mode adopted by M, Picot for the preservation and 

 transport of his vegetables is worthy of observation. After having 

 dried the plants in the ordinary manner, instead of placing them 

 between sheets of paper, he put them all, pressed one immediately 

 over the other, into flat shallow boxes, the interior of which was 

 covered with oil of petroleum, and which were supplied with cam- 

 phor and pepper pounded together, and carefully closed in all the 

 joints. The vegetables, so packed, were not injured, either by the 

 damp or by insects, under circumstances in which ordinary herba- 

 ries were completely destroyed. The adoption of this plan would save 

 botanists a great deal of trouble and anxiety, and relieve them from 

 the masses of paper which they are now obliged to carry. 



On the distinguishing Marks of Venomous Serpents. On the 16th 

 May, M. Cuvier read a report on a very important memoir by M. 

 Dtivernoy, Professor of Natural History at Strasburg, the object of 

 which is to point out the means of distinguishing those serpents 

 whose bite is rendered dangerous from the venom which they instil 

 into the wound, from those whose bite is accompanied by no evil 

 consequences beyond those of the wound itself. The attention of 

 naturalists has long been directed to this subject in vain. It was 

 formerly supposed that the existence of plates or scales on the top 

 of the head was a sufficient criterion ; but a further acquaintance 

 with the reptile tribe has proved that the rattlesnakes, the trigono- 

 cephalus, the nain, all of which are decidedly venomous, are furnished 

 with these scales, as well as the most harmless snakes. It was after- 

 wards thought that the jaw, remarkably moveable, and furnished 

 with a large hollow fang, was a sign easy to be recognized, and, in 

 fact, all serpents in which that peculiarity is observed are venomous, 



