35^ 



SNAKES. 



We have long been accustomed to read that a serpent's 

 fang is a 'perforated tooth' or a 'hollow tube,' as if a 

 miniature tusk had a hole bored through its entire length, 

 the poison entering at the root and flowing out _ h 

 again at the point This is not strictly the case. 

 Fangs in their construction are not absolutely 

 'hollow,' with ivory on the outside and pulp on 

 the inside, but are as if you had 

 flattened out an ivory tusk and 

 folded or wrapped it over again, 

 so as to form a pointed tube. It 

 would then have dentine both on 

 the outer and inner surface. This 

 involution may be compared with 

 that seen in a long narrow leaf, 

 in which the larva of an insect 

 has enwrapped itself The various 

 degrees of involution are extremely 



di 1 J L j_i r Two fangs magnified, showing tlie 



OSe, as also would be the forms ^nt more or less cLplete. ., a section. 



of leaves and the extent of curling ^""""^ ^^yr^r^ Thanatophidia. 

 which each caterpillar had effected. Some fangs are folded 

 so as to leave \\vQ.—join^ we will call it, easily perceptible. 

 Others leave a groove more or less evident ; while in others 

 the fold is so complete as to have disappeared entirely. 

 Schlcgel, in describing the insensible passage from solid teeth 

 to fangs, affirms that traces of the groove are always per- 

 ceptible : ' On decoiivre toiijoiirs Ics traces de la fente qui reunit 

 les dctix orifices pour le veriiyi! ^ 



In a mixed collection of thirty odd fangs of various snakes 



^ Physiognomic des sc7-pents^ par H. Schlegel. Amsterdam, 1837. 



