OP THE TEETH. 43 



In studying the structure of the teeth of Ophidians, we 

 find an insensible passage from solid teeth to fangs. Each 

 tooth consists, in its first stages of development, of a 

 lamella turned up at the sides, so as to be open on its 

 anterior face. In the solid teeth, this fissure is soldered 

 up at a very early age of the animal; it remains open 

 a little longer in the fangs of venomous snakes, properly 

 so called, but at the time of maturity, these fangs only ex- 

 hibit the two apertures destined for the entrance and emis- 

 sion of the poison, the lower of w^hich always appears as a 

 longitudinal fissure. The other venomous serpents have 

 analogous fangs, but we can always perceive traces of the 

 groove which unite the two orifices for the poison ; the 

 channel, then, of the posterior and longest teeth of certain 

 harmless Ophidians, is merely that fissure remaining open 



Africa, as in Europe, the inhabitants indiscriminately consider as 

 venomous a great many snakes, especially if their aspect has any thing 

 hideous. M. Reinwardt, during his residence in Java, discovered 

 the existence of grooved teeth in several species of the ancient genus 

 Coluber ; when published by the late M. Lichtenault and other tra- 

 vellers, and accompanied by the accounts of the nature of serpents cur- 

 rent in that isle, this discovery attracted the attention of European 

 naturalists. Boie has detailed similar observations of Professor 

 Reinwardt on many other Ophidians. I published, in 1827, in a me- 

 moir inserted in the Acta Curios. Naturae of Bonn, my own researches 

 relative to this fact. Since that period, the question has often been dis- 

 cussed, and it has even been concluded on anatomical investigation, that 

 we ought to consider all serpents as dang-erous, whose 2)Osterior teeth were 

 long or grooved. I have arrived by analogous researches, and by a 

 rigorous examination of the accounts which are detailed on the suspi- 

 cious characters of certain snakes, at a very opposite conclusion. The 

 structure of the supposed posterior venomous gland, so absolutely like 

 the other salivary glands, cannot permit a doubt to remain that it se- 

 cretes a fluid similar to the ordinary saliva : besides, the recent obser- 

 vations of travellers serve to shew, that the bites, neither of the Drio- 

 phis nor of the Dipsas, serpents with grooved teeth, produce any fatal 

 effects on man. 



The glands of the head of serpents have furnished materials for nu- 

 merous dissertations, published by Ranby (Phil. Trans. N. 401, p. 

 377,- — by RrssEL, by Seifert, by Tiedemann, Mem. cle VAcad. de 

 Munich, 1813, p. 25, — by Cloquet, Mem. du Mus., Vol. VII. p. 62, — 

 by Demoulins, ap Magendk, Journ. de Physique, IV. p. 274, — by 

 Meckel, Archiv. I., — and by Duvernoy, Ann. de Sci. Nat. XXVI. and 

 XXX. We find also remarks relative to this subject in the works of 

 Redi, Mead, Fontana, and Charas. 



