yune 20, 1878] 



NATURE 



203 



the manner in which the morphological force has en- 

 clothed a vertebrated animal in the case of the bird than 

 in that of the huge "creeping thing." 



Certainly the skull is in some respects much more 

 simple in the serpent th^n in the bird, for the bird having 

 built up its skull with all the old reptilian architectural 

 elements, afterwards blots out their distinctness for the 

 most part, and only leaves marks here and there of the 

 early subdivision of the parts. 



But this is due to *' the hot condition of their blood " 

 and, especially in the higher kinds, the "altrices," the 

 life-vessel of a bird almost literally boils over ; in a few 

 short weeks the shapeless embryo of a swallow or a swift 

 is able to join the " airy caravan " of its migrating parenti 



Head of Embryo Snake, i inch long, magnified 8 diameters.. 



and relations "high over seas," and in far distant 

 countries seek for perpetual summer. 



The great serpent, I ween, took a century or two to 

 finish in its fulness his huge bulk ; time, so important to 

 the "turtle, and the crane, and the swallow," could be of 

 no importance whatever to pre-Adamite boa-constrictors 

 and pythons. Was not the whole jungle theirs, and theirs 

 also every kid and fawn, to say nothing of the luckless 

 imwary bird 1 



That the spinal column is as complete and beautiful a 

 piece of machinery in a boa-ronstrictor or ordinary snake 

 as in the bird there can be no doubt. 



Talk of specialisation ! Why, Prof. Owen's terms for 

 the parts and processes of a snake's vertebra would take 



Embrj'O of Snake, J inch, magnified 8 diameters. 



up half a column in a scientific glossary. I will g-ive a 

 few of his terms; — "Neural-spine," " neurapophysis," 

 " post-zygaphophysis," " prae-zygapophysis," "zygo- 

 sphene," "zygantrum," " procoelous," articular cup of 

 "centrum," posterior ball for next cup of "centrum," 

 "neural canal," oval articular head for ribs on each 

 " diapophysis," and oval concavity on head of rib. 



Four hundred vertebrae, most of which have all these 

 parts ! Surely this creature was made by Nature herself, 

 and by no "'prentice hand." 



The sinuous cylindroidal facets, fore and aft, on the 

 bird's centrum are not a whit more perfect than the 

 cup-and-ball of the snake's vertebra; and in all respects 

 the articulation of the serpent's spine is so exquisitely 



perfect as to beggar all human inventions of joints and 

 hinges. 



Only just a little motion of joint on joint is allowed, 

 each joint set into the other, so that nothing can part 

 them without crushing them entirely; and yet a *Kost 

 perfect and delicate motion of cup in ball, wedge tin 

 'cavity, and of the oblique overlapping facet on the oblique 

 facet beneath it — all these ar€ harmonised together, and 

 just allow a gentle bend of bone on bone, and a gentle 

 rolling of vertebra on vertebra. 



Multiply by 400 this limited motion, this arrested curve, 

 and you get a motion such as would, if likely to be applied 

 to you, personally, make "all your safety to lie in remotion, 

 and your best defence absence." The curve, so small as 

 made by one joint bending on another, would, in its sum 

 total, be sufficient to engirdle a luckless anatomist several 

 times over. 



In the bird's head nearly all the fair details of its early 

 architecture are plastered over by periosteal bone, by the 

 ruthless processes of a steady ankylosis that removes 

 landmark after landmark. 



Not so in the serpent, although, with a wise prevision 

 (enough to satisfy the most craving teleologist, who, 

 wondering, asks you if you see no design in Nature), 

 ankylosis comes in to perfect the " strong box" in which 

 this wise [cunning] creature keeps its limited brain. ^ 



The organ of its mind is thus safely lodged so that no 

 foot may crush or wild beast break its casket ; thus with 

 its "cruel venom" the adder "bites the horse heels so 

 that the rider falls backwards," and is in no fear of that 

 heaviest of all feet, the foot of the soUped. 



The (relatively) deaf adder has its ear-organs encased 

 in adamant ; they with the cranial bones are " shut 

 up together as with a close seal. One is so near to 

 another that no air can come between them. They are 

 joined one to another ; they stick together that they cannot 

 be sundered." 



So much for the cranium proper ; but how about \\ve^face? 



The/ace is a loose framework of bones tied together 

 into one piece of work by an infinite amount of "yellow 

 elastic tissue," and the opening of the capacious "maw" 

 is surrounded and defended by bars of ivory-like bone, 

 many of which are beset with retral teeth pointed like 

 needles and sharp as lancets. 



Your serpent, with all his wisdom, does not "mouth" 

 his words ; he only hisses ; but he mouths his prey as no 

 other creature does; and the "shirt of Nessus" was 

 not a more dreadful robe to wear than the distensible 

 body of a python, inclosing, ingulphing, suffocating, and 

 digesting its limp and helpless prey. 



With regard to the relation of the snakes to the existing 

 lizards, it is a remarkable fact that, whilst they have no 

 tympanic cavity, in which character they agree with 

 Sphenodon and the chamaeleons, yet a small cochlea buds 

 out from the vestibule, and there is to it a " fenestra 

 rotunda." The chamaeleon is void of this structure, and 

 thus in that respect is as low as a frog. 



The lower jaw and its pier (quadrate) was altogether 

 directed forwards in the early embryo of the snake ; 

 afterwards the pier and the free mandible are articulated 

 at a very acute angle, the squamosal touches the temporal 

 regions by its apex, and to its base the long rib-like 

 quadrate is articulated. 



The quadrate thus is made to pass over the "columella 

 auris,".which also is directed backwards ; on that rod there 

 was a small " stylo-hyal " ; the quadrate picks up this use- 

 less remnant, and glues it, by partial ankylosis, to its 

 inner face. 



Thus the counterpart of the human "styloid process" 

 is ankylosed to the bone that answers to the head of the 

 "malleus." W. K. Parker 



' I am frequently a?ked whether I believe in design, and am always at a 

 loss how to answer the question, it seems to be to me so perfectly gratuitous. If 

 the questioner would but give me time, I would promise to write him a bock 

 upon the fitnesses to be seen in lifrog at even in a Jlea that should be as 

 large as a family Bible. 



