102 SNAKES. 



pious Reader will see how that the Historie of Serpentes 

 begineth at the Creation.' 



Thus we see that the ideal snake was a religious principle, 

 carried out in illustrations and architec- 

 tural embellishments, where 'that old 

 serpent the devil' was depicted as a 



. J M 1 • • , • 11 Fabulous tongues. 



creature as terrible as imagmation could 



conceive it ; and of course with a highly-developed tongue 



in the form of a dart or a spear, more or less alarming. 



Far in advance of Topsell, and far in advance of England, 

 were the naturalists of Southern Europe. Gesner, professor 

 of philosophy at Zurich, published his Historia Animalium 

 in 155 1 ; and Aldrovanus, professor of philosophy and physic 

 at Bologna, wrote thirteen folio volumes of natural history, 

 four only of which were published during his lifetime, and 

 the rest after his death, which was in 1605. These two 

 authors, though out of date at the present day, have left 

 their names perpetuated in plants and animals examined 

 by them. 



As one of the objects of this work is to trace the origin 

 of some of the many errors that have obtained regarding 

 the serpent race, and to note the gradual enlightenment 

 observable in successive writers, it is a part of our duty to 

 quote the Bible ; and this we do with reverence, emboldened 

 by the fact that the present state of knowledge has demanded 

 a new translation to satisfy the intellect of the age. 



Shakspeare himself might have had the Bible devoutly 

 in his mind when he talked of the adder's ' sting.' 



Among the many commentators and exponents of Holy 

 Writ, Cruden (a.d. 1794) says, * Some place the venom of 



