INTR on UCTION. 3 



ness. Whatever of romance or sensation attaches to it, is 

 due to the marvellous powers of the creatures who fill its 

 pages, and whose true nature I have laboured to com- 

 prehend. 



Schlegel and Dumeril are two authorities on serpents much 

 quoted by English writers, and both give us a list of all the 

 naturalists of repute who have done service to herpetology, 

 up to the date of their works. As many of these are 

 introduced in the body of my work, let us glance at the 

 progress of ophiology since the date of these two dis- 

 tinguished authors. In zoology as much as in any branch 

 of science progressiveness is observable ; and in zoology 

 the advance of ophiology has of late years been remark- 

 able. In 1843, when Schlegel's Essai siir la PJiysionomie 

 des Serpents, 1837, was translated into English by Dr. Thos. 

 Stewart Traill, of the University of Edinburgh, he mentioned 

 as a reason for curtailing the original (and not adding the 

 atlas containing 421 figures, with charts and tables), that 

 the low state of ophiology in this country did not invite 

 a larger work, and ' deters booksellers from undertaking such 

 costly illustrations ; ' but he hoped to be useful to science 

 by cultivating a branch of zoology hitherto neglected. Ten 

 years prior to that date, viz. 1833, the monthly scientific 

 magazine TJie Zoologist was started ; in introducing which 

 the Editor, Mr. Ed. Newman, wrote: * To begin, the attempt 

 to combine scientific truths with readable English has been 

 considered by my friends one of surpassing rashness ; ' that 

 he had ' many solicitations to desist from so hopeless a task/ 

 and many ' supplications to introduce a few Latin descrip- 

 tions to give it a scientific character,' science being then 



