HERPETOLOGY. 



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Job. 



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I-.:: v. 



irurm f ignorance of barbarians. Several are alluded 

 to in the Sacred Scriptures ; and we are clearly of opi- 



ished his Analomia Animalium fguris variis illuslra- 

 ta, which contains some useful observations on the 



ttwaasr^f^jafig s-StSs^ 53 ? 1 ^ 



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in the 4 1st chapter of the book of Job, applies to no 

 other animal with which we arc acquainted, if not to 

 the crocodile. His ample jaws and dreadful teeth, his 

 compact impenetrable scales, his large and fiery eyes, 

 hi* strength, ferocify, and courage, agree exactly with 

 our best descriptions of the crocodile ; and though some 

 iHMirri might lead us to conclude that the poet was 

 describing an inhabitant of the ocean, this objection is 

 trivial, when we reflect that the large rivers and lakes, 

 which form the ordinary habitation of crocodiles, might, 

 in the glowing and figurative languages of the East, 

 without too much hyperbolical exaggeration, be desig- 

 nated by the terms deep and ocean. 



Of the ancient classic naturalists who have written 

 on reptiles, we need mention only Aristotle and Pliny. 

 The former, in his Historia Animalium, has described the 

 crocodile, the salamander, and someother species ; but the 

 latter, in his Historia Naturalis, has furnished the fullest 

 account of reptiles, especially in his second, eighth, 

 ninth, tenth, and twenty-eighth books, in which he re- 

 lates all that was then known, and all that was believed 

 respecting the crocodile, the sea and land tortoises, the 

 chameleon, and the basilisk. In the second book, he 

 hews himself acquainted with the fact, that reptiles are 

 not destroyed by cutting off their limbs or tail; in the 

 eighth, he mentions the spectacle of five living crocodiles 

 exhibited by Scaurus, the edile, to the people of Rome; 

 in the ninth, he describes the mode then practised in In- 

 dia, for taking turtles; in the tenth, speaking of the 

 crocodile, he tells us very gravely, that the male and 

 female sit alternately on the eggs laid by the latter; 

 and in the twenty-eighth, besides mentioning the utility 

 of the skink, and several parts of the crocodile, as medi- 

 cines, he details at considerable length the fabulous his- 

 tory of the chameleon. 



Among the modern writers on natural history, Ges- 

 neri in part of his Historia Animalium, treats of ovi- 

 parous quadrupeds, though the number which he de- 

 cribes, is by no means very considerable. As usual, 

 with the writers of his time, he imitates the ancient 

 naturalists in mingling truth with fable, especially in 

 his second book, in wnich he describes the. chameleon. 

 In some respects, however, he is very judicious. He 

 notices the wonderful tenacity of life in reptiles, and 

 particularly exemplifies it in the heart of the sala- 

 mander. 



AlwMit the same time with Gesner, viz. in the middle 

 of the lo'th century, lived Rondelet, a native of Lan- 

 guedoc in France ; who, in his work on fishes, has de- 

 cribed some species of turtles as having been seen by 

 him upon the coast of France. 



That laborious collector and compiler, Aldrovandi, 

 in that portion of his works which is dedicated to qua- 

 drupeds, describes many reptiles, especially the tor- 

 toise, the_crocodile, the chameleon, and the salamander; 

 bnt as his accounts are derived almost entirely from 

 preceding authors, and abound with marvellous fictions, 

 they are now rarely consulted. 



In that part of Johnston's Historia Animalium which 

 is dedicated to quadrupedi, we have also an account of 

 everml reptiles, among others the crocodile and the 

 chameleon. 



In the Utter end of the l?th century, Blasius pub- 



Redl. 



Ray. 



llistof) 



remarkable abstinence. 



About the same time appeared Sibbald's Prodromus S.bbuia. 

 Histories naturalis Scotia, in which he describes some 

 species of turtles, as being found on the western coast 

 of Scotland. 



In KiS5, Francis Redi published his Expenmenta 

 circa Farias res Naturales, and about the same time his 

 Italian work on the same subject. Th0 experiments 

 which Redi made on various species of tortoise, are 

 sufficiently cruel; but they illustrate, in an eminent de- 

 gree, the surprising tenacity of life possessed by these 

 animals. They will be particularly noticed hereafter. 



Our learned and scientific countryman Hay, was 

 the first naturalist who gave any thing like a rational 

 account of reptiles, in his Synopsis Animalium. He 

 describes more species of tortoise than were known be- 

 fore ; and besides the crocodile, enumerates several 

 rare species of lizards. 



The immortal Swedish naturalist, in his Si/sterna Linnaeus. 

 Nafurw, divided the class of amphibia into four or- 

 ders, reptiles having feet, serpents without feet, gliding 

 reptiles, (mea/itex,) and swimming reptiles, (ttantcs). 

 As the last order was afterwards removed to the class 

 of fishes, and some other important emendations were 

 introduced into subsequent editions of that laborious 

 work, we shall defer any observations on Linnaeus's me- 

 thod till we notice his last and best editor, Gmelin. 



In Seba's Thesaurus Na/urce, published about the Seba. 

 middle of last century, a considerable number of the 

 most remarkable reptiles is figured ; and though the 

 engravings are not in the first style, they give a suffi- 

 ciently just idea of the objects which they represent. 



AH the British species then known are described, pennant* 

 and- some of them figured in the British Zoology of 

 Pennant, published in IT'W, in 4 vols. He particular, 

 ly describes the coriaceous, or leathern tut tie, as having 

 been found on the British coast. 



Mr Pennant also contributed some of the very few 

 papers on reptiles, to be found in the Philosophical 

 Transactions, especially a description and figure of the 

 Testtido ferox, or soft tortoise, and the T. cunacea, or 

 leathern turtle. Some species are also noticed in his 

 Arctic Zoology. 



In 1755, professor Klein of Leipsic, published his Klein. 

 Tentamcn Erpetologia; ; but as that work is confined 

 chiefly to serpents, we cannot properly do more than 

 Hotice it here. 



In 1768, appeared the Specimen Medicum exhibens 

 Synopsin Heptiliumof Laurenti.in which anew arrange- 

 ment of these animals was attempted. He distributes 

 all reptiles (except tortoises, which he unaccountably 

 omits altogether) into three orders, leaping reptiles, 

 walking reptiles, and serpents. Of the first order, he 

 characterizes five genera, Pipa, Bufo, Rana, Hylu, and 

 Proteus ; and in his second order thirteen genera, viz. 

 Triton, Salamandra, Caudivertiera, Gecko, Chameleo, 

 Iguana, Basiliscus, Draco, Cordyhis, Crocodilus, Scin- 

 cus, Stellio, Seps. Among the serpents he places the 

 Chalcides, which certainly belong to the second as pro- 

 perly as the Seps. 



Nine years after the " Specimen" of Laurenti, Sco- 

 poli published his Introductio ad Historian Naturalem, 

 in which he divides the reptiles into legitimate or vrue, 



Lauresti 



ScopoN. 



See his Phytkn Sacra, published in 1T3U 



