TOL. XIII.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 571 



bodies, which may be some advantage too, yet not sufficient alone ; for other- 

 wise upon a Httle occasion the parts would be apt to sHp out, which now they 

 cannot, being forked, and hooked in too by the aculei or bristles. But the de- 

 ferentia being continued to the end of the penes do likewise show this must be 

 the use of them. But that the female may receive no injury by these spines, 

 nature has made that part of the uteri which they enter strong and gristly ; as 

 we observed in a viper : and that the male too might not be harmed by an over 

 extension of these parts, those strong muscles which serve for retracting and 

 drawing them in, do likewise secure them in this respect too. It may be like- 

 wise considered, since they are naturally so cold and frigid, whether these aculei 

 may not serve to incite them, and stir them up. From these parts we pass to 

 the poisonous teeth. 



But first I shall remark something of the other parts in the mouth: as the 

 tongue, the larynx, and the smaller teeth. 



The tongue (fig. 5, g,) was in all respects like that of the viper, being 

 composed of two long round bodies, contiguous and joined together from the 

 root ^ of its length; which with great agility the animal could dart out, and 

 retract again. The use it is designed for, I suspect with Charas, to be in part 

 for catching flies and other insects. 



Over the tongue (fig. 5, f,) lay the larynx; not formed with that variety of 

 cartilages as is usual in other animals; but so as to make a rime or slit for re- 

 ceiving or conveying out the air : nor was there any epiglottis for preventing 

 other bodies from slipping in ; this being sufficiently provided for, by the strict 

 closure of them : and the air passing through only such a slit, without the con- 

 trivance of other parts for modulating it, can only make such a sound as we 

 observe in their hissing. 



The teeth are of 2 sorts, (fig. 5, c, c, h.) ] . The smaller, which are seated 

 in each jaw, and serve for the catching and retaining the food. 2. The poison- 

 ous fangs (fig. 5, d, d, fig. 6, h, fig. 7.) which kill it, and are placed without 

 the upper jaw, are all canini or apprehensores ; for since they do not chew or 

 bruise their food, but swallow all whole as they meet with it, there is no need 

 of molares. 



Of the first sort of teeth: in the lower jaw there are 2 rows on each side, 5 

 in a row, the inward smaller than the outward, so that there are here 20 in all ; 

 in the upper jaw there are but 1 6, 3 on each side, placed backwards, and 6 be- 

 fore. These do no harm, which was known to mountebanks (as Caesalpinus and 

 others observe) formerly ; who to give a proof of the force of their antidotes, 

 would suffer themselves to be bitten by vipers, but first took care to spoil them 

 of their fangs. 



4 D 2 



