REPTILES AND SNAKE-STONES 3 



clearly discernible in the living animal, but becom- 

 ing more conspicuous after death, when dehiscence 

 takes place and the plates fall off, perfectly detached 

 from each other."* Let anyone examine the cast-off 

 skin, as it is called, of a viper or snake, and he 

 will find it to be a thin delicate cuticle which had 

 covered all the projections and inequalities of the 

 true skin, containing a little pouch for each of the 

 " scales " (falsely so called) into each of which a 

 projection had extended. True scales are easily 

 rubbed off from the skin in fish, but there is no 

 rubbing them from that of a snake ; they are per- 

 manent projections with a scale-like form. If there 

 is any value in words, then " scale " cannot be ap- 

 plied at the same time to the deciduous, flat, horny 

 plates of fish, and the flat, depressed, but persistent 

 irregularities of the skin in reptiles. However, with 

 this reservation, we shall proceed to call them 

 " scales " in deference to custom, and the collective 

 wisdom of those more learned in reptiles than 

 ourselves. 



This was the position when the first edition of 

 this work was published, and the Amphibia, or Bat- 

 rachians, were regarded as an order of the class 

 Keptilia. This position cannot, however, be any 

 longer maintained, and hence we have no other 



* The Zoologist, p. 8450. 



B 2 



