REPTILE. 



545 



. functions, while m that state, may be so totally sus- 

 pended, that there shall not be the slightest wear or 

 waste of the system, arid yet the application of heat 

 shall restore them to the full measure of activity 

 which they enjoy under any circumstances. The 

 enclosing of a common toad in the hole of a tree, 

 by the growth of new wood over the aperture, is a 

 case of which there have been many instances. 



In this way the more characteristic of the reptiles 

 afford a remarkable proof of a very curious doctrine 

 a doctrine which, at first sight, one would be tempted 

 to look upon as a paradox, and yet which, when we 

 come to analyse it, appears to be perfectly consistent 

 with the general law of nature. The principle is this : 

 the less of the activity of life there is in any creature, 

 taken in the average healthy state of that creature, 

 the more difficult is that life to be destroyed. A 

 tortoise has been known not only to live, but to 

 move about, for nearly three weeks after the brain 

 had been totally removed. A salamander, which is a 

 reptile in which the action of life is still more feeble, 

 luts been known to live for several months ; and the 

 hearts of some serpents have preserved their vitality 

 for nearly two days and two nights after having been 

 taken out of the body. 



In fact, it does not appear that any of the functions 

 of reptiles' are so purely animal functions as those of 

 the other vertebrata, or even some of the inverte- 

 brated ones, in which the action of life is very 

 vigorous, and therefore very easily destroyed. Di- 

 gestion is one of the most important functions of 

 animals ; and in the other vertebrata, the process of 

 digestion appears to sweeten the food in many cases, 

 where it cannot be supposed to be very sweet before 

 it is taken into the stomach. In them the gastric 

 fluid, though a powerful solvent, is anything but a 

 putrifying agent; on the contrary, it is an antiseptic. 

 To enquire into the chemical causes of this, and 

 attempt to ascertain how much of it is owing to the 

 peculiar alkali in this stomachic agent, would be 

 foreign to our purpose. It is certain, however, that 

 not a little depends on this, for there is nothing 

 which deranges the whole system of an animal to a 

 greater extent than an excess of acid in the stomach, 

 which acid neutralises the alkaline property of the 

 gastric juice, which thereby becomes unfit for the 

 performing of its function, and indigestion and 

 derangement of the whole system are the necessary 

 consequences ; and, when this derangement is great, 

 the contents of the stomach become offensive, and 

 the food is converted into a poison. Those who 

 have to earn their bread by mechanical labour, in the 

 open air, are very rarely affected in this way ; and 

 we may thence infer that, in so far as the mere 

 body is concerned, this is the natural state. With 

 man, as a rational and immortal being, the body, 

 though an important consideration, is not the only 

 one. But in the case of other animals it is quite 

 different. In a state of nature they all perform the 

 labour of finding their food in the open air ; and 

 therefore, in the three typical classes, and espe- 

 cially in the mammalia and birds, the contents of 

 that stomach in which the food is turned into chyme 

 are always sweet. So much is this the case, that, 

 in some instances as in woodcocks and other 

 gut birds the " trail," that is, the stomach and its 

 contents, is esteemed as the most savoury and deli- 

 cious morsel of the whole. Very many of the pre- 

 datory animals, also, endeavour to reach, as soon as 



NAT. HIST. VOL. III. 



possible, the stomach of their prev. All the fact?, 

 indeed, tend to show that, in the he'althy digestion of 

 mammalia or birds, and even of fishes, there is a 

 correcting of putridity, and not a producing of it. 



But, when we come to the class of reptiles, we find 

 the state of things very different ; for their digestion 

 appears to be a putrefaction, and it is possessed by 

 the gullet, and probably even by the skin of the 

 interior of the mouth. What connection there may 

 be between this tendency which the digestive fluid in 

 reptiles has to putrify the food, and the actual poison 

 which some of them secrete, as a means of killing 

 their prey, of defence against their enemies, or, as it 

 is .in the poison-pores of some of the Sauria, for 

 purposes not very well known, it is not easy to say; 

 but we know enough to make us infer that there is 

 some connexion between reptiles and putridity. 

 This is not of course equally conspicuous in all, for 

 the reptiles are a diversified class ; and though we 

 cannot infer, d priori, from their structures, in what 

 latitudes or in what places any particular one ought 

 to dwell to be in greatest accordance with that 

 harmony which runs so conspicuously through 

 nature, yet we find that their great head-quarters 

 agree with the physiological distinction between 

 them and the other vertebrata in the nature of their 

 digestion ; and this, though not a great deal, is some 

 beginning to their history as a portion of nature. 



It is a law in the economy of the world, to which 

 we believe there is no exception, that where there is 

 most life there is also most death ; and where compo- 

 sition and growth operate with the greatest vigour, 

 there decomposition and corruption, which is but 

 another name for one form or stage of decomposition, 

 are always most vigorously at work. Countries near 

 the tropics, which are shaded by woods, supplied 

 with waters, or otherwise so provided with moisture 

 as that they do not become parched during the 

 rainless season, are of course those in which life and 

 death are most powerfully and constantly at work. 

 We have again and again had occasion to point to 

 the islands south-eastward of Asia, and the countries 

 on the north-east shore of South America, as those 

 which possess this character in the highest degree. 

 Now, it is there that we find the grand muster of the 

 reptiles, in variet}' of species, in numbers, and in 

 power. Such as inhabit the waters are not of course 

 much affected by the fertility or barrenness of the 

 land. They depend more on the productiveness of 

 the water, and the action of the sun as affecting its 

 temperature, and promoting the hatching of their 

 eggs. It is probable, however, that there is some 

 connexion between the fertility of the land and that 

 of the sea, though the knowledge of this has not yet 

 been reduced to anything like part of a system. 



The more powerful of the reptiles, whether those 

 which we call aquatic or not, which are to be met with 

 in those places of continual growth, are in other places 

 less abundant, as they less resemble these in their 

 physical characters. The banks of a large river, 

 the woods near its confluence with the sea, or marshy 

 lands, if in warm latitudes, are all favourite places 

 for the abodes of reptiles. In such places, crocodiles, 

 alligators, and turtles, are found in the waters, vast 

 numbers of toads in the marshes, lizards in the drier 

 places, now in the sun now in the shade ; and serpents, 

 coiled up under the bushes, basking in the sun, 

 lying in wait on the trees, or swimming from place 

 to place, are found in countless numbers ; and the 

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