12 



some time, was killed l>y ants, which, collecting on the top of the head, 

 perforated the skin. It was supplied with water, which it refused to 

 enter. 



The soft Palate has not, as in the human subject, a central, pendant 

 uvula, but an arching fissure, on each side of which, and nigher the 

 ani^les of the mouth, is found a structure somewhat similar. 



Upon the whole, the tongue is large, excepting only its tip, and, if the 

 Egyptians worshipped the crocodile because it was tonguelcss, they 

 were not wise. " The crocodile was adored^ " says Bishop Warbur- 

 ton, "])ccause having no tongue, it was made in hieroglyphic writing 

 the symbol of the Divinity." 



Herodotus says, that the Eye of the crocodile is like that of the hog ! 

 — a most faulty comparison. The eyes of the Alligator are rather pro- 

 minent than large, being situated but little below the summit level of the 

 head. The Pupil is greatly elongated — scarcely less than an inch 

 vertically, exceeding the horizontal diameter ten or fifteen times — an 

 arrangement, which in connection with the salient position of the eye in 

 a projecting socket, must give it an immense range of vision — probably 

 from the zenith to 45 degrees below the horizon. Contrary to the 

 assertion of Herodotus, it is highly probable that it sees well in water. 

 When it wishes to protect its eyes, a dense, semi-transparent, blueish, 

 nictitating membrane is thrown over the globe. The Cornea comprises 

 all that part of the eye, which is visible under ordinary circumstances. 

 But when the neck is twisted, so as to give pain, a very small crescentic 

 part of the white of the eye, {tunica albuginea), is sometimes seen. The 

 eye, so far as I have observed, is constantly open, even during apparent 

 sleep. 



The Iris is dark, variegated with brown. The cornea occupying the 

 whole front, is exceedingly transparent and lustrous. Excepting the 

 ' imperfection of the eyelids and the absence of lashes, the eye is well 

 worthy of the attention of the poets, as well as the Gazelle's ; — indeed. 

 Dr. Aikin has ventured to write poetry on the crocodile's ^'■burnished 

 eyes.^^ As this was all theory with him, and right only by accident, 

 he deserves no credit for it. He had adopted, like many critics, an 

 erroneous opinion, namely, that the Levi/ithaji, described in the forty- 

 first chapter of Job, is the crocodile of our era. "His eyes," says Job, 

 are like the eye-lids of the morning." — No one has a right to dispute 

 with Job on natural history. Nor is there any reason so to do. The 

 scales of the animal, he describes, cover all parts of the body, "as with 

 a close seal. One is so near another, that no air can come between 

 them. They are joined one to another, they stick together that they 

 cannot be sundered. The sword of him that layeth at him cannot hold : 

 the spear, the dart, &lc. He esteemeth iron as straw, and brass as 

 rotten wood. The arrow cannot make him flee ; slingstones are turned 

 with him into stubble. Darts are counted as stubble ; he laugheth at 

 the shaking of a spear. Canst thou fill his skin with barbed irons ?" 

 [sec what is said of the skin and osseous, integumentary plates in the 

 sequel.] "He maketh the deep to boil like a pot ; he maketh the sea 

 like a pot of ointment" — a proof that he was not of the crocodilian fam- 

 ily, which is only found in lakes, rivers, lagoons and swamps, not in the 

 ocean. 



