710 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1898. 



following^ pages. Meanwhile 1 will refer to the fact that while the 

 general fades of the typical venomous snakes (Solenoglypha) is easily 

 recognized by the eye, the characters of the frequently no less danger- 

 ous Proteroglypha are not so easily distinguished from those of the 

 harmless ones. They are only to be distinguished by an especial 

 knowledge of species or by an examination of the dentition. In the 

 Columbian fauna we have but one genus which presents this deter- 

 minate appearance, Elaps, but in the warm regions of the Old World 

 such genera abound, and in Australia there is no other type of 

 venomous snakes. 



In the Solenoglypha the bite is effected by two movements. The 

 first is the spring of the body, and the second is the grasp by the max- 

 illary bones, which work freely by a ginglymus on the prefrontal bones. 

 The bite as exhibited by a lizard or a mammal, by the closing of the 

 lower jaw on the upper, is of little effect in the Solenoglypha, if it occurs 

 at all, while the movement of the maxillary bones is very consj)icuous. 

 I was once nearly bitten by the nearly severed head of a Grotalus molos- 

 SMS, nothing but a piece of skin connecting it with the body, as I was 

 exhibiting the large fangs. A Sistrurus catenatus edicardsH, which I 

 held by the neck on one occasion, opened and closed its fang bearing 

 maxillaries energetically. This may be observed also in other Crotalids 

 when about to bite and unable to reach their enemy. It is quite the 

 reverse with the Proteroglypha. Authors agree that the Ela/ps closes 

 the lower jaw, holding its prey in its mouth and piercing it repeatedly 

 with the fangs. The movement of the maxillary, so conspicuous in the 

 Crotalida?, is impossible to these serpents. 



The question as to whether the Opisthoglyph serpents are venomous 

 in any degree has been recently discussed. A synopsis of what is known 

 on this subject has been recently published by Dr. L. Stejneger,' of the 

 U. S. IS^ational Museum, and from it I make the following extracts: 



It seeDis that the Dutch professor, Reinwardt, while in Java, was the first to dis- 

 cover that certain snakes, dreaded by the inhabitants of that island as venomous, 

 are provided with long grooved fangs at the posterior end of the maxillary bone. 

 He communicated this discovery to Dr. H. Boie, in Leydeu, who published it in 1826.- 

 The suspicion expressed by Professor Reinwardt that this channel or groove on the 

 anterior side of these fangs might convey the fluid from a poison gland led to sev- 

 eral important investigations, the first of which to be published was Dr. Hermann 

 Schlegel's memoir on the salivary glands of the serpents with grooved teeth.^ 



He came to the conclusion that inasmuch as he found the structure of their glands 

 to be similar to that of other salivary glands, there could be no doubt that they 

 secrete "a fluid similar to the ordinary saliva;" and as "recent observations of 

 travelers " served to show that the bites of snakes with grooved teeth produce no fatal 

 results to man, he asserted with characteristic positiveness that it is '' erroneous" to 

 class with venomous serpents those snakes which have the posterior teeth long and 

 channeled. However, a short time after, Prof. G. L. Duvernoy, of Strassburg, pub- 



^The Poisonous Snakes of North America, Report of U. S. National Museum for 

 1893, 1895, p. ,337. 



- Oken's Isis, 1826, p. 213. 



■'Nova Acta Acad. Leop. Nat. Curios., Honii, XI\', 1828 (pp. 145-154). 



