OPH1DIA. 189 



TYPHLOPS, Schn.(l) 



The body covered with small imbricated scales like Anguis, with which 

 they were long classed; the projecting muzzle furnished with plates; tongue 

 long and forked; the eye resembling a point hardly visible through the skin; 

 one of the lungs four times larger than the other. They are small Serpents, 

 at the first glance resembling earth-worms; they are found in the hot por- 

 tions of both continents. 



In the second tribe, that of the SERPEISTES, or Serpents properly 

 so called, the tympanal bone or pedicle of the lower jaw is movable, 

 and is itself always suspended to another bone, analogous to the 

 mastoid process, attached to the cranium by muscles and ligaments, 

 which allow it some motion. The branches of this jaw are not so 

 closely united with each other, and those of the upper one are merely 

 connected with the intermaxillary bone by ligaments, so that they 

 can separate to a greater or less extent, which enables these animals 

 so to dilate their mouths as to swallow bodies larger than themselves. 



Their palatine arches participate in this facility of motion, and 

 are armed with sharp pointed teeth which curve backwards, the 

 most predominant and constant character of the tribe. Their tra- 

 chea is very long, their heart very far back, and most of them have 

 but one large lung with a vestige of another. 



Serpents are divided into venomous and non-venomous; and the 

 former are subdivided into such as are venomous with several max- 

 illary teeth, and those which are venomous with insulated fangs. 



In such as are not venomous, the branches of the upper jaw as 

 well as those of the lower one, and the palatine arches, are every 

 where furnished with fixed and solid teeth; there are then four equal 

 rows of these teeth in the upper part of the mouth, and two below. 



TORTRIX, Oppel. 



Distinguished from Anguina, even externally, inasmuch as the scales which 

 form the range along the belly and under part of the tail are a little larger 

 than the others, and the tail itself is extremely short. They have but one 

 lung. 



In those non-venomous Serpents, on the contrary, where the 

 mastoid bones are detached, and the jaws are susceptible of great 



(1) Tw<j>xo>4> Tu$Mv t blind, were the names of the Anguis (slow-worm) 

 among the Greeks. 



