THE TONGUE OF A SNAKE. 119 



particular. The Encyclopedia Britannica, after telling us * the 

 use of the tongue is not exactly known/ adds, ' they (the 

 snakes) are continually lancing it into the air, and may 

 possibly in this way gather moisture from grass or herbage ' 

 (alluding to the question of ' drinking,' see chap. iv.). 



Professor Owen still further defines it as a pair of muscles, 

 or a double muscle partly connected and partly free. The 

 reader will prefer the learned Professor's own words, not- 

 withstanding the slight repetition. 



In his Anatomy of the Vertebrates, p. 463, after describing 

 the prehensile character of the tongue in some reptiles, 

 notably the toad and the chameleon, he says : * In serpents 

 the tongue takes no other share in the prehension of food 

 than by the degree in which it may assist in the art of 

 drinking. It is very long, slender, cylindrical, protractile, 

 consisting of a pair of muscular cylinders in close connection 

 along the two basal thirds, but liberated from each other, 

 and tapering each to a point at the anterior third ; these 

 are in constant vibration when the tongue is protruded, and 

 are in great part withdrawn with the undivided body of the 

 tongue into a sheath when the organ is retracted.' The 

 pair of parallel muscles can be distinguished in the largest 

 of the accompanying illustrations, viz. the tongue of a 

 Jamaica boa of about 8 feet long. It was cut out and given 

 me immediately after the death of the reptile, and while soft 

 and flexible was carefully copied. The hair-like points 

 diminish to an almost invisible fineness impossible to repre- 

 sent with pen or pencil. The slender little tongue is that of 

 the young Jai'-araca ; and the shortest is that of the African 

 vipcrling. I have drawn only as much as is usually ex- 



