CHARACTERISTICS OF REPTILES. 17 



In tropical regions enormous Serpents are found, which are as 

 bulky as a man's thigh, and are said to be not less than forty feet in 

 length. Roman annals mention one forty feet long, which Regulus 

 encountered in Africa during the Punic wars, and which is fabu- 

 lously said to have arrested the march of his army. These gigantic 

 reptiles are not, however, the enemies which man has most cause 

 to fear ; their very size draws attention to them in such a manner 

 that it is easy to avoid them. It is quite otherwise with Vipers 

 twenty or thirty inches long ; they glide after their prey without 

 being seen, strike it cruelly with their fangs, leaving in the wound 

 a venom which produces death with startling rapidity. Doubtless 

 this fatal power was the origin of the worship which was ren- 

 dered to certain reptiles by barbarous nations of old, and these 

 animals are indeed still venerated by many savage races. The whole 

 class of Reptiles are, for the most part, calculated to inspire 

 feelings of disgust, and such has been the sentiment in all ages. 

 Few people can suppress a movement of fright at the sight of an 

 ordinary Snake, Lizard, or Frog, notwithstanding that they are 

 most inoffensive animals. Several causes concur to this aversion. 

 In the first place the low temperature of their bodies, contact 

 with which communicates an involuntary shudder in the person 

 who tries to touch one of them ; then the moisture which exudes 

 from the skins of Frogs, Toads, and Salamanders ; their fixed and 

 strong gaze, again, impresses one painfully in thinking of them ; 

 the odour which some of them exhale is so disgusting, that it 

 alone sometimes causes fainting; add to this the fear of a real 

 or often exaggerated danger, and we shall have the secret of the 

 sort of instinctive horror which is felt by many people at the 

 sight of most reptiles. Nevertheless, the injurious species are ex- 

 ceptional amongst reptiles, and there are not any amongst the 

 Batrachians, for it is altogether a mistake to take for venom the 

 fluid which the toad discharges.* It is true that these animals 

 are repulsive in appearance, we can nevertheless recognise their 

 services in the economy of nature. Inhabitants of slimy mud and 



* The Necturus, a Siren-like animal inhabiting the lakes of North America, has 

 series of small, fang-like teeth above and below, which are stated to give an 

 envenomed bite. " Proceedings of the Zoological Society " for 1857, p. 61. For 

 poison-organs in certain fishes, vide the same publication for 1864, p. 155. ED. 



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