544 



REPTILE. 



mon, as that we can say they must all follow the 

 same mode of life. 



Fishes are less under the control of our observa- 

 tion than either mammalia or birds ; but there is this 

 advantage in them, that, when they get out of the 

 reach of our observation, we know where they are, 

 and that is not an unimportant point in our knowledge 

 of them, though it may appear a vague one. Fishes 

 leave their own appropriate element less than either 

 mammalia or birds, though there are a few that can 

 (not fly, but) leap a little way through the air, and 

 others that can crawl a little on the surface of the 

 earth. Both of these are, however, in the metapho- 

 rical as well as the literal sense of the words, " fishes 

 out of the water ;" and thus the}' form not the slight- 

 est hindrance to our conclusion as to the place which 

 fishes hold in the system of nature. As in the other 

 cases too, if we attend to the differences of structure, 

 we have not much difficulty in coming to an accurate 

 conclusion as to the place and the general style of 

 action in any particular fish. A very cursory look 

 will inform us whether the fish lingers near the shore 

 or drives about discursively over the wide seas. Nor 

 is it more difficult to determine the general depth at 

 which the fish inhabits the water, to pronounce that 

 it is a surface fish, or fish of the midway depth, or 

 one of the bottom. 



In each and all of these three classes of animals, 

 therefore, we have something to begin with, which is 

 easily traced, clear and definite, and of ready appli- 

 cation at every step of our progress. But when we 

 attempt the study of the reptiles we have no such 

 help. We can of course .tell the shape, and the 

 number, form, and arrangement of the several parts; 

 that is to say, if we get hold of the specimen in a 

 condition sufficiently perfect; and there are some 

 few cases in which we can tell whether the land or 

 the water is the habitual residence of the creature. 

 But there are other cases, and they appear to form 

 the majority, in which we cannot decide even this 

 very simple and general question a question so 

 simple and so jreneral, that, though we could answer 

 it, the answer would be of very little value to us. 



Let the reptile in question be an ophidium, and let 

 the question be whether it is a land one or a water 

 one ; and without a knowledge of those very details 

 in which the general principle ought to assist us, we 

 can come to no conclusion. Even in those with 

 which we are most familiar, there are puzzles and 

 perplexities of the very same kind. Let any one 

 who has not attended to the habits of the creatures 

 look at a common frog, as it hops lightly along the 

 meadow, and at a common toad, as it drags its appa- 

 rently useless lumber of legs after it on a dark even- 

 ing in the middle of summer ; and, after he has exa- 

 mined their appearances and their motions, let him 

 say which is the more aquatic of the two, and the 

 chances are, that if he is in the proper condition for 

 needing the general principle, that is, if he knows 

 nothing about the facts of the particular case, then 

 the chance, nay, almost the certainty, is that his 

 decision will be wrong. 



Owing to this total want of a general character in 

 keeping with the rest of nature, by the help of which 

 we could arrive at some knowledge of the locality, 

 latitude, and use, we are, as it were, thrown out of 

 the system when we attempt to take a general view 

 of the class of reptiles in reference to the system and 

 working of the rest of nature. They are vcrtebrated 



animals, and yet they do not appear to belong to the 

 same combination as the other vertebrata. We can 

 at once point out the general element or localit^ of ;i 

 mamrniferous animal, a bird, or a fish, but where, 

 upon general principles, is the proper clement or 

 locality of a reptile ? From inspection of it, we find 

 that, flying excepted, we might with equal propriety 

 point anywhere, and that which is equally at home 

 anywhere may be said to be really at home no- 

 where. 



This negative state, so to name it, in which we 

 arc placed with regard to the reptile?, as having 

 light thrown on their characters and uses, from the 

 economy of the rest of nature upon our globe, leaves 

 us absolutely without anything like general or scien- 

 tific principles in the natural history of them abso- 

 lutely without a rational natural history, we may say ; 

 for all the knowledge that we have is mere details, 

 as these have been observed in individual instances ; 

 and we may add that there are, in the various collec- 

 tions, more specimens of reptiles, of the habits, and, in 

 many instances the mere localities, of which nothing 

 is known, than there are of ail the other vertebrated 

 animals taken together. 



If we abandon the mechanical structure and the 

 mechanical action, and take to the physiology, we 

 do not materially better our condition as to general 

 knowledge, for there seems to be the very same 

 kind of anomaly here as in the mere structure. 

 Among the whole of the other three vertebrated 

 classes, for instance, there is a production of a certain 

 structure, at the birth or the coming out of the egg, 

 though different parts of this are developed and 

 brought to maturity at different ages of the animal. 

 But if, by accident or design, any member is lopped 

 off, the mutilation continues, and though there may 

 be compensation in other parts of the system, there 

 is never any reproduction of the severed member. 

 But it is not so in the reptiles ; for in many of them, 

 a limb, or part of a limb, will sprout again and grow, 

 and come to be useful after it has been completely 

 taken away. In this there is a complete departure 

 from the other vertebrata, and an assimilation to 

 some of the animals that have no skeletons, and 

 nothing that can be called a centre of organisation . 

 to the Crustacea for instance, and also to some of 

 those creatures which appear to hold the lowest 

 rank in the scale of animal life, and which may be 

 cut in pieces without being killed, or dried like 

 tinder, without being so far dead as that they cannot 

 be again resuscitated by the application of the 

 requisite supply of moisture and of heat. 



Indeed, the reptiles generally are wonderfully at 

 the mercy of the laws of the inanimate part of 

 creation ; and though some of them are capable of 

 very powerful momentary action, they are so only 

 when they have due assistance from physical causes 

 external of themselves. The great crushing serpents, 

 which can break the bones of very large animals in 

 their folds the pythons of the south-east of Asia 

 and the boas of tropical America are perfectly help- 

 less if you expose them to the cold of even a mild 

 winter day with us in the open air, or even in a room 

 where there is no fire. When the temperature is 

 reduced below a certain degree, they sink so that 

 they cannot recover, and then of course they die ; 

 but, down to a certain degree, the measure of which 

 is a matter of experiment, they may be kept in a 

 dormant state for a great length of time ; their 



