Ada Acad. Nature Curiosa Bounce. 591 



nervous texture in this class of animals, however, is so gelatinous, 

 and so little distinct from the other parts of the body, even when 

 acted on by alcohol, that he by no means places the same reliance 

 on this as on the previous statements. 



Articulated Worms. In these animals, which approach so closely 

 to the other articulata in the arrangement of the nervous system, the 

 visceral nerve is also present. Thus, in Aphrodite, aculeata, the 

 lateral cords forming- the nervous collar around the pharynx, imme- 

 diately before their junction in the first ganglion of the abdominal 

 chain, * each send off a filament which may be called recurrent. 

 These nerves are very distinct, and proceed forwards towards the 

 point where the short oesophagus is attached to the stomach ; they 

 may be traced by the naked eye along the sides of the latter, which 

 is very long and muscular. Before they reach the intestine, they 

 expand into a ganglion, from which proceed numerous ramifications.' 

 CUVJER. 



The character assigned to this system of nerves (sympathetic or 

 visceral), and the close analogy it presents to the corresponding 

 system in vertebral animals, will hardly be disputed, if, taking a 

 general view of the different degrees of development in which it has 

 already been found to exist, we fix our attention more particularly 

 on the points which establish that character and analogy most pre- 

 cisely. These consist, on the one hand, in the slight and unimportant 

 connexions existing between it and the brain; and on the other, in 

 its independent development, and the direct proportion which that 

 development presents to the degree of complication of the alimentary 

 canal, as is particularly marked in the case of the carnivorous co- 

 leoptera, of the carnivorous and herbivorous mantides, and of the 

 other orthoptera. 



On the Salivary Glands of Serpents, which are commonly considered 

 not venomous. By H. Schlegel, M.D. 



SERPENTS have hitherto been usually separated into two great divi- 

 sions, viz., those that are, and those are not venomous. As the fact, 

 too, is one that admits of being determined by the examination of 

 the teeth, it is the more extraordinary that there should be great 

 variation in the statements of even the most recent zoologists ; and 

 the only manner in which we can explain the doubts that have been 

 suggested as to the venomous nature of certain serpents, is by sup- 

 posing that those with whom they originated were either ignorant 

 of, or neglected to examine the venomous apparatus. In truth, 

 many have sought the perforation of the venom-fangs at a point 

 where it does not exist, or have allowed themselves to be deceived 

 by 1he thick membraneous sheaths, in which those fangs are usually 

 buried. 



Some naturalists, as Gray and Cuvier, have endeavoured to esta- 

 blish external characters, for the purpose of discriminating these two 

 divisions of serpents ; but so far without success, that the genera 



