CHAPTER III. 



TEETH OF OPHIDIANS. 



91. The order Ophidia, as it is characterized in the system of 

 Cuvier, requires to be divided into two sections according to the nature 

 of the food and the consequent modification of the jaws and teeth. 

 Certain species, which subsist on worms, insects, and other small 

 invertebrate animals, have the tympanic pedicle of the lower jaw 

 immediately and immoveably articulated to the walls of the cranium ; 

 the lateral branches of the lower jaw are fixed together at the sym- 

 physis, and are opposed by the usual vertical movement to a similarly 

 complete maxillary arch above ; these belong to the genera Amphis- 

 hcena and Anguis of Linnaeus. (1) The rest of the Ophidians (2), which 

 form the typical members and by far the greatest proportion of the 

 order, prey upon living animals of frequently much greater diameter 

 than their own; and the maxillary apparatus is conformably and 

 peculiarly modified to permit of the requisite distention of the soft 

 parts surrounding the mouth and the transmission of their prey to the 

 digestive cavity. 



The two superior maxillary bones have their anterior extremities 

 joined, by an elastic and yielding fibrous tissue, with the small and 

 single intermaxillary bone : the symphysial extremities of the lower 

 maxillary rami are connected together by a similar tissue allowing of 

 a still wider lateral separation. The opposite or posterior extremity of 

 each ramus is articulated to a long and moveable vertical pedicle, 

 formed by the tympanic or quadrate bone (PL 65, fig. 7, e), which is 

 itself attached to the extremity of a horizontal pedicle formed by the 

 mastoid bone (fig. 7./.), so connected as also to allow of a certain 

 yielding movement upon the cranium. The palatine (fig. 6 c) and 

 pterygoid {d) bones have similarly loose and moveable articulations, 

 and concur with the other dentigerous bones of the mouth in yielding 

 to the pressure of the large bodies with which the teeth may have 

 grappled. 



(1) PI. 65, figs. 3-5. (2) ib. fig. 6-15. 



