lxxxix 



thereon at the next first meeting of the two societies, and that said 

 report be submitted in writing, and that said committee be allowed 

 further time to report. 



S. B. Johnson, Silas Bent, and Albert Todd, on the part of the 

 Historical Society, and Dr. McPheeters, Mr. Lynch, and Enno 

 Sander, on the part of the Academy of Science, were appointed 

 a Finance Committee to solicit subscriptions. 



December 16, 1872. 



Mr. J. R. Meeker in the chair. 



Mr. C. V. Riley presented for the museum a well-preserved 

 skin of a rattlesnake, measuring over six feet in length, and 

 having twenty- eight rattles. He observed that the statement 

 was recently made in Chambers' journal that the poison of the 

 rattlesnake was pressed from a gland, or sac, in the gum, at the 

 base of the fangs, and ran down the outside of the tooth, and 

 not, as was generally believed, through a channel in the centre of 

 the tooth. He did not attach any weight to the statement. 



The rattles of the rattlesnake had been a stumbling-block to 

 the Darwinians, as it is generally taken for granted that they 

 must prove a serious detriment to the snake by frightening away 

 any prey that might come within hearing. The theories lately 

 put forth by Prof. N. S. Shaler and J. G. Henderson, in the 

 " American Naturalist," give us, however, a different impression 

 on this subject. It is there held that the rattle serves as a lure to 

 birds, who mistake the noise for the drumming of the Cicada. 

 This would be an explanation, perhaps, satisfactory to some ; 

 but there is added another and more natural explanation of the 

 rattle. It is this : that since the rattle is never resorted to except 

 when the snake is greatly agitated, the vibrations of the tail are 

 then intended to serve as a dread alarm-note to strike terror to 

 the heart of an assailant, who may be, and frequently is, im- 

 mensely stronger than the snake, and could crush it at a blow. 

 The dread of the bite of the snake serves as a powerful curb upon 

 the enemy, and many animals which, on the first impulse, would 

 run at and kill it, are deterred by the fear of the terrible bite, the 

 effect of which they know by instinct. Again, should these views 



