HISTORY OF OPIIIOLOaT. 121 



artificial. How is it that the Elaps and Naja, Ophidians 

 whose jaws are furnished, besides the fangs, with solid 

 teeth, have been arranged among the venomous serpents 

 with isolated fangs ! The Langaha is also in that division, 

 although neither its form nor its structure offer the least 

 analogy to venomous serpents. We see in the same sys- 

 tem the Boa, the Python, and the Acrochordus, figure in 

 four different families. The Scvtale coronatus and the 

 Eryx, form a part of the genus Boa ; the Uropeltis (the 

 true Typhlops) is found in the series, whilst the Xenopel- 

 tis has been excluded from it to take its place among the 

 Colubri. These remarks will suffice to shew to how many 

 errors the principle of classing serpents according to the 

 form of the subcaudal plates, has given rise. 



Besides the works of Lacepede, of Latreille, and of 

 Daudin, we possess a complete enumeration of the known 

 species of serpents, published in 1820 by Merrem.* The 

 author, in adopting the great divisions of Ophidians into 

 venomous and innocent, has arranged most of the latter 

 in the genus Coluber, a denomination which he has very 

 inappropriately changed to Natrix; and he terminates a 

 long series of these animals by the genus Dryinus. At 

 the head of the harmless serpents are found, — 1st, The 

 Acrochordus ; 2d, The Bhinopirus, a name substituted 

 for Herpeton ; 3d, The Tortrix, a medley of the genera 

 Tortrix, Er3^x, Typhlops, Acontias, &c. ; 4th, The Eryx ; 

 5tli and 6th, The Boa and the Python, genera which in- 

 clude a great many heterogeneous species ; 7th, The 

 Scytale, a confused melange, which is followed by, 8th, 

 The Hurriah, a reunion as absurd as the name which de- 

 signates them. Merrem has taken care, in his distribu- 

 tion of venomous serpents, to adopt almost all the generic 

 names invented by his predecessors ; he has multiplied 

 their number by the addition of several new designations ; 

 his Sepedon is established in favour of the Naja Hcema- 

 chates ; his Pelias includes a Viper and a Trigonocephalus ; 

 his Echis reposes on the Vipers. But this learned man, 

 without the least necessity, has introduced numerous 

 changes in the nomenclature ; such are the introduction of 



* Tentamen Systematis Amphibiorum. Marburgi, 1820. 



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