MEMOIR ON AMPHIBIA. 377 



My intention was, ift, To examine the teeth and fangs 

 of thefe reptiles : 2d, To obferve whether they would be 

 reproduced, and in what fpace of time : but the animal 

 dying of its wounds, or rather of the cold which came on 

 two days afterwards, we Ihall not have it in our power to 

 make ihis laft obfervation. 



Fifth Observation. — I put into a fmall bottle, with 

 water, the teeth of the boiquira, and carried them to Dr. 

 GraiFi, of our fociety, who, prevented by fome patients 

 under his care, had not been able to ajSift at our experi- 

 ment, and we examined them together. I opened with 

 attention the flefhy membrane which I had removed with 

 the tooth, and wc found eight teeth attached by a little 

 fibre to a common membrane, as reprefented in Fig. 5. 

 thefe teeth are deftined to replace the old ones, which, ac- 

 cording to all appearance, fall at leaft once every year.* 



Sixth Observation. — Having remarked the prodi- 

 gious quantity of young teeth in this flelhy membrane, I 

 was curious to learn what is their arrangement while the 

 animal is alive. Mr. Peale had been fo kind as to prepare 

 for me a young boiquira, one of thofe which we had 

 taken, and which had died that day. I chofe it for the 

 fubjed; of my experiment, it was almoft dry, I loofen- 

 ed lightly, with a penknife, the flefhy and dried Iheath 

 which covered one of the fangs, and perceived three teeth 

 of different fizes, placed one above the other in the man- 

 ner defcribed in Fig. 3. Not perceiving any more, I con- 

 cluded that the fmall ones had been either removed with 

 the flelliy part, or were fo concealed as to render it im- 

 pofiible to difcover them. 



3 D Seventh 



* This obfervation is not new. I have fince foLind, in conlequence of 

 my refearches, that tliis multiplicity of teeth had been already remarked in 

 the European viper (coluber natri Linn.) ; and that John Bartram menti- 

 ons the fame faft in a Memoir on the Boiquira, printed in the Philofophiciil 

 Tranfadions. Volume XL I. No. 456. 



