2 78 SNAKES. 



Tyson quotes from the * contests between the noble Italian 

 Redi, and the Frenchman M. Charas/ as to the source of the 

 poison in vipers, and makes discoveries for himself, as for 

 instance the mobility of the jaw in elevating and depressing 

 the fang, the structure of the teeth, and various other 

 matters which in this book are discussed in their several 

 chapters, but which were then for the first time scientifically 

 described in English by Tyson. 



True that a little traditional gossip about the rattle, which 

 he had gathered from less competent sources, creeps in to- 

 wards the conclusion of the paper. While the learned M.D. 

 writes from his own observations and scientific knowledge, he 

 affords valuable information ; and we can dispense with the 

 hearsay of the day. However, all honour be to Dr. Tyson of 

 two hundred years ago, who was the first to give us ' The 

 Anatomy of the Rattlesnake,' and its first scientific name. 



As the two American continents became more widely 

 known to Europeans, and Englishmen were seized with a 

 desire to visit the new colonies, books of travels and 

 descriptions multiplied too rapidly for even a passing mention 

 in these pages ; though wherever the slightest approach to 

 natural history was included, the rattlesnake figured 

 conspicuously. Of those works frequently quoted by 

 naturalists, Seba's Rerinn Nattiraliiim TJiesanri in 1735, 

 of four ponderous volumes, containing text in both Latin and 

 French, and profusely illustrated, must not be omitted, though 

 about the Crotalus he has not much new to tell us. He 

 quotes Tyson and others, and explains that the many nearly 

 similar names are ^ scion la difference de prononciation des 

 Bresiliens, qiii la nomine anssi Boiqnh'a ;'' and he thinks all 



