592 Analysis of Books, fyc. 



Elaps, Naja, and Bungarus agree so closely in general appearance 

 with the Coluber family, as to be with difficulty distinguished. 



Of late it has been asserted in many quarters, that the bite of 

 serpents not ordinarily reputed venomous has proved fatal. Pro- 

 fessor Natterer communicated similar facts to Dr. Sehlegel, at 

 Vienna, on the authority of his brother in Brazil. Professor Rein- 

 wardt, during: his residence in Java, examined the teeth of Dipsas 

 Lendrophila, not usually considered venomous, and found them 

 similar to those of others of the Coluber family, excepting that the 

 hindermost tooth of the upper jaw on each side is longer than the 

 rest, and perforated. Professor Boie of Leyden pursued the inves- 

 tigation farther, and found that the same structure prevails in all 

 species of the genera Dipsas and Homalopsis. Dr. Schlegel has 

 found similar teeth in the middle and at the posterior part of the 

 upper jaw in the genus Bryophis. They exist also in Bamophis,but 

 are not perforated. In Xenodon there is a single tooth at the back 

 of the jaw, not perforated. 



These peculiarities are attended with corresponding variations in 

 the arrangement of the glandular apparatus of the head. In the 

 greater number of true serpents and Boae, the upper and lower 

 maxillae are armed with ranges of solid teeth, attached by their 

 roots to the bone, and accompanied on the inner side by a second 

 range, which is connected with the soft parts only. In these cases 

 the upper maxilla is very long, and the teeth are lodged at the 

 bottom of a deep membraneous furrow, forming a distinct sheath 

 for each, from which little more than the point projects. A corre- 

 sponding glandular mass is ranged along the margin of each jaw, 

 secreting the saliva, and detaching an excretory duct in the situation 

 .of each tooth. 



In those species which have a perforated tooth posteriorly, as 

 Dipsas, Homalopsis, &c., the teeth in general are more widely sepa- 

 rated than in others of the Coluber family. The superior maxilla 

 is also proportionally shorter, a point in which there is an approxi- 

 mation to the truly venomous serpents. The sheath which surrounds 

 this tooth is very capacious, and like that of the proper venomous 

 species, contains one tooth firmly attached, and two, three, or four, 

 movcable, less completely formed, and ready to supply the loss of the 

 principal one ; the latter is perforated along its anterior edge, and 

 has an internal cavity communicating with this fissure. 



In Homalopsis monilis (from Java), Coluber monilis, Linn., there 

 is the same structure ; in addition to the ordinary salivary gland 

 placed along the margin of the superior maxilla, as in the other 

 colubrine species, there is a separate gland of considerable size, 

 destined exclusively for the posterior perforated tooth, and giving off 

 a large excretory duct, which penetrates its root, and discharges the 

 secretion of the gland through the fissure on its front edge. 



Dr. Schlegel divides the proper venomous serpents into three 

 families, the first containing the colubrine species, as Elaps, Naja, 



