35 
END NOTES 
1. The nature of the Latin is such that Linnaeus may refer either to himself as the author or to God 
as the "Author", i.e., creator of these animals. The capitalization of "Author" is Linnaeus's. 
2. Draco, a genus of SE Asian lizards. 
3. Bufo, Salamandra, Gecko are species by Linnaeus' s reckoning, but the forms in general are 
as we interpret them. 
4. Catonians-the lower world. An obscure term, perhaps related to the Greek "kata", "down", and 
hence these lowly creatures 
5. Apparently a referral to cusps or solid teeth. 
6. Redi, an Italian scientist, performed experiments on the nature of poisonous creatures. A 
recent translation and annotation is Francesco Redi on Vipers, by Peter K. Knoefel. 1988. E.J. 
Brill, Leiden, xvii+86 pp., 2 figs. 
7. Linnaeus tells us first that only 10% of all snakes are made venomous. In so doing the creator 
not only protected humans from excessive poisoning, but also protected the serpents' feelings 
and existence. Here he adds the fact that humans have been given various natural protections 
against the poisonous serpents, listing an animal enemy and a plant antidote for three main 
locales. 
The enmity of the mongoose to the cobra and the pig to the rattlesnake (cf. Crotalus horridus 
below) are well known. The mongoose, which Linnaeus described as Viverra ichneumon on p. 
43 of the 10th ed. of the Systema Naturae, is today known as Herpestes ichneumon, a species 
ranging from the Iberian Peninsula through North Africa to Asia Minor. India is home to several 
species of Herpestes, but not H. ichneumon. Ophiorhiza means, literally, "snake root," and 
Linnaeus lists it below as an antidote for the bite of the Naja (cobra) (the mongoose is also again 
mentioned here). Gerth van Wijk, H.L. (1922. A Dictionary of Plant Names . 2 v. M. Nijhoff, The 
Hague. 1:918) gives its popular names as "mongoose plant" and Indian snake-root." R. N. Chopra 
et al. (1956. Glossary of Indian Medicinal Plants . Council of Sci. and Indust. Res., New Delhi, p. 
181) as an antidote to snake bite. Polygala senega is an American milkwort and C.F. Millspaugh 
(1974. American Medicinal Plants. Dover Publ., New York . p. 174-176) lists it as a popular 
antidote to rattlesnake bite and Linnaeus lists it below as such (Crotalus horridus). The well known 
antipathy of storks and serpents was frequently commented upon in antiquity. See D. W. 
Thompson (1966. A Glossary of Greek Birds. Olms, Hildesheim, Germany, p. 223) for possible 
sources for Linnaeus’s comment. 
8. Linnaeus uses three different terms for sorts of scales and plates. In order best to reproduce 
the effect of the original, the following renditions are used consistently throughout without regard 
to their actual correspondence with the animal's appearance: squama= scale, scutum= scute, scu- 
tellum = a small scute. All, of course, are synonyms for the epidermal scales. 
9 Reading the non-Latin "e caudatum" as a single word. 
10. Figure 4 in in plate 3 of Grew looks more like Eretmochelys if judged by pattern and apparent 
overlapping scutes. 
