280 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY- 



the body follows without communicating any motion to them ; 

 and in this way a snake will often steal across a meadow, or 

 through a thicket, unperceived by a person standing at a little 

 distance."* In contrast with the clear and simple statement 

 here given of the movements of the common English Snake, 

 it is interesting to place the magnificent description so well 

 known to every reader of " Paradise Lost": 



" So spake the enemy of mankind, enclosed 

 In serpent, inmate bad ! and toward Eve 

 Addressed his way ; not with indented wave 

 Prone on the ground as since, but on his rear 

 Circular base of rising folds, that tower'd 

 Fold above fold, a surging maze! his head 

 Crested aloft, and carbuncle his eyes, 

 With burnished neck of verdant gold, erect 

 Amidst his circling spires that on the grass 

 Floated redundant." BOOK ix. 



Like many other now exploded specifics, the flesh of Ser- 

 pents, or the liquid, especially wine, in which they were 

 infused, was held of peculiar efficacy for the cure of disease, 

 and as an antidote to poison, These ideas, preposterous as 

 they may now appear, were not discarded until the last cen- 

 tury was far advanced. In Dr. Owen's work on Serpents, 

 published in London in 1672, we are informed that " their 

 flesh, either roasted or boiled, the physicians unanimously 

 prescribe as an excellent restorative, particularly in con- 

 sumptions and leprosy." 



There is another reptile equally inoffensive, and not less 

 maligned than some already mentioned the Blind- worm, or 

 Slow-worm of Britain, described as the "eyeless venom'd 

 worm" by Shakspeare. Yet it has in fact no poison fangs, 

 and is naturally of so timid and gentle a disposition, that only 

 under circumstances of great provocation will it attempt to 

 bite. It is unknown in Ireland; but in Scotland we have 

 seen it broken in two by the blow of a slight rod, thus illus- 

 trating the correctness of the Linnsoan appellation Anguis 

 fragilis the Fragile Snake. 



To the systematic naturalist this creature is interesting 

 from its exhibiting in certain points the characters of two dis- 

 tinct classes of reptiles. The body is destitute of legs, in that 

 respect resembling the true Serpents, while at the same time 



* Magazine of Natural History, 1838, p. 479. 



