122 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



CORIIESPONDENCE. 



DISSECTION OF A GLASS-SNAKE. 



rOOME weeks aco Messrs. 0. R. Glover 

 L lO and Charles ll. Lawrence, of Chicago, 

 favored us witli a living specimen of joint- or 

 glass-snake, which had been captured on a 

 farm owned by them in Starke County, In- 

 diana. With a view of obtaining, if pos- 

 sible, any facts in addition to what was pub- 

 li.shed in the Correspondence department of 

 the " Monthly " for February and April, and 

 in the Popular Miscellany department for 

 the latter month, the creature was sent for 

 examination to Dr. W. A. Conklin, Director 

 of the Central Park Menagerie, New York, 

 who has kindly furnished the following re- 

 port. — Ed.] 



Editor Popular Science Montlily : 



Sin : I delayed sending you any report on 

 the chain-snake {opJdbolus) for the follow- 

 ing reason : Shortly after reaching the men- 

 agerie the snake laid a number of eggs, and, 

 as I had some curiosity to see if they would 

 be hatched, I decided not to disturb it for 

 a few days. It remained six days coiled 

 around the eggs, leaving them for a short 

 time each morning to drink water. On the 

 seventh day it was found dead. The theory 

 that a full-fledged vertebrate annual such 

 as this should possess power of unjointing 

 and rejointing itself seems hardly worthy 

 of discussion. I sent the specimen to Dr. 

 W. S. Gottheil for dissection, and he writes 

 me as follows: "There is a vertebral col- 

 umn, running the entire length of the ani- 

 mal, the individual segments of which are 

 accurately fitted together, bound to each 

 other by a complicated and firm system of 

 ligaments, and containing continuous nerve- 

 structures ; here arc muscles running from 

 bone to bone, long internal organs, intes- 

 tinal canal, liver, etc., and covering the 

 whole is a perfectly continuous and very 

 tough dermal envelope. There is no more 

 possibility for it to unjoint than for a per- 

 son to unjuint his head from his trunk. One 

 peculiarity only is noticeable : the cloaca is 

 very liigli up at the junction of the anterior 

 and middle thirds of the animal's length, and 

 the tail-piece is thus relatively very long." 



I believe that in some of these animals 

 the terminal segments of the body are nei- 

 ther so firmly attached nor so highly vital- 

 ized as the rest, and can be detached by a 

 comparatively sliiiht amount of violence, 

 and without entailing any disability upon 

 the animal. The tail being exceptionally 

 long here, it may be that a comparatively 

 largo section of the body may become de- 



tached by a blow. The animal could not 

 break into several pieces, and it certainly 

 could not unite if it could do so. 



W. A. CONKI.IN, 



Director of Central Park Menagerie. 



FICTIONAL ASTKONOMT. 

 Editor Popular Science Monthly : 



Sir : I note the letter of Anne M. John- 

 son, in the September number, on the as- 

 tronomical mistake in " King Solomon's 

 Mines." She is quite right in saying that 

 others, besides Mr. Haggard, may make er- 

 rors in regard to the moon. Here is an in- 

 stance from so careful a writer as Andrew 

 Lang : In his " Letters to Dead Authors," 

 he tells Theocritus, " Thou wouldst see the 

 dawn awake in rose and saffron across the 

 waters, an Etna, gray and pale against the 

 sky, and the setting crescent would dip 

 strangely in the glow on her way to the 

 sea." This is the reverse of the mistake 

 made by Mr. Haggard and Anna Bowman 

 Dodd. Edward King, in his recently-pub- 

 lished poem, "A Venetian Lover," also 

 says (line sixteen), "The young moon pales 

 before approaching dawn." Many other 

 similar instances might be quoted, some 

 from rather unexpected sources. 



But Mr. Haggard excels all competitors 

 in that his error of making the crescent moon 

 rise soon after sunset is only one of a scries. 

 By referring to the book, it will be seen that 

 the very next night " the full moon rose in 

 splendor about ten," without any explana- 

 tion of the change from " crescent " to 

 " full " in some twenty-four hours, or of a 

 full moon rising so late in a country which 

 seems somewhere near the tropic of (Capri- 

 corn. Following the narrative a little fur- 

 ther, we find that, on the succeeding day, 

 there is an eclipse of the sun, with total 

 darkness for nearly half an hour. As it is 

 hardly necessary to mention, an eclipse of 

 the sun can take place only at new moon, 

 and the total obscuration never lasts more 

 than a very few minutes — four, if I remem- 

 bcr rightly. It will be seen that Mr. Hag- 

 gard has made the most of his opportunities 

 for blundering. Edward 11. Beedk. 



Chicago, August 31, 1&&7. 



ANOTHER ANOMALY IN PLANT-GROWTH. 

 Editor Popular Science Monthly : 



Sir : To the illustrated letter of E. W. 

 B. Canning, in your September number, en- 

 titled "An Anomaly in Plant-Growth," I 



