90 SNAKES. 



While puzzling over this drinking question, I find a 

 favourite author, P. H. Gosse, affirm, ' Snakes drink by 

 suction, not by lapping,' and that 'serpents are said to 

 lap up fluids with their forked tongue, which, however, 

 seems to be ill suited to such an operation.' ^ 



Then one naturally turns to the encyclopedias, where we 

 grow still more perplexed, for no two agree precisely on 

 all points. 



* The use of the tongue in serpents is not exactly known.' ^ 

 And again, ' It is believed that serpents never drink.' ^ It is 

 true that the compiler of the article Reptilia quotes Schlegel 

 a good deal; but unfortunately that is the very point on 

 which Schlegel speaks doubtfully. Nor do we presume to 

 include the learned Schlegel as one of the inaccurately 

 informed individuals, though he does discredit the milk- 

 drinkers. Of him Dumeril thus writes, or of his work rather, 

 which he pronounced to be ' le plus detaille et le plus complet 

 qui ait paru jusqu'ici (1844), et auquel nous serons sans cesse 

 oblige d'avoir recours.' Schlegel is also quoted by Cantor, 

 1 841 ; by Dr. J. E. Gray, 1849; by Dr. A. Giinther, 1864; 

 and, in fact, by most scientific ophiologists. Natural history 

 is an ever-advancing science, more so, perhaps, than any 

 other. Linnseus and Cuvier were great in their day, but 

 their systems obtain no longer. 



Unfortunately, a dozen book-makers and a thousand 

 journalists seek no farther than encyclopedias when they are 

 ' reading up ' a subject ; and not until too late, if at all, or after 



1 Natural History of Reptiles^ by P. H. Gosse, 1S50. 



2 Encyclopedia Britatwica, 1 859, see art. * Reptilia,' p. 47. 

 ^ Ibid. p. 47. 



