378 
vey some idea of it, being certainly the most agile denizen of the 
Reptile House. But this movement is only an increase of the 
same action which is observed in one creeping slowly along, dis- 
played to best advantage when it is gliding from a plane to a 
raised surface. When a snake is in imminent danger, however, 
it adopts a remarkable motion for the purpose of eluding injury 
or capture, which motion, though it may be termed, far excel- 
lence, ‘‘serpentine,” has, singularly enough, been very little 
commented upon by ophiologists. 
The body is thrown laterally into a series of deep curves, 
which alternate so quickly from convexity to concavity that it is 
extremely difficult to touch or aim a blow with preci-ion at any 
part of it, the lateral movements covering a square of ground, 
the side of which would be represented by at least two thirds of 
the snake’s length. This motion is clearly protective in its ob- 
ject, and is only exhibited when the straight-onward movement 
is felt to be insufficient to avoid peril, since the reptile’s speed 
in travelling is greatly retarded by it—necessarily so, as the head 
turns alternately from side to side at an angle of fully a hundred 
and twenty degrees to the line of its course, thus describing the 
major part of the circumference of a series of circles which the 
body and tail follow. Even a small one on a table will not be 
picked up without two or three ineffectual efforts, when it 
wriggles in this way, and I have seen a tiny Oxyrrhepus doliatus 
defend itself so for some moments against the lightning ‘‘ dabs” 
of a serpentivorous bird ; while a lively whip-snake, which was 
cruelly thrown to a peccary in my presence, actually twined 
away among the hog’s feet and escaped into the jungle, in spite 
of the hungry and active animal’s attempts to secure it. I was 
walking in the Botanical Gardens of Kio de Janeiro some time 
ago, when a Jady called my attention to something going away 
among the ferns. Not being able to see it from where I stood, 
I jumped down the bank and found myself literally upon an 
immense green tree-snake, at least nine or ten feet long ; I was 
almost treadingonit, but notwithstanding my most energetic efforts 
to catch such a magnificent specimen with my hands, feet, and 
the crooked handle of an umbrella, it succeeded in crossing an 
open space two yards wide, and disappeared into a clump of 
bamboo, solely by virtue of this lateral movement. I noticed 
that the intensity of the curvatures caused the ventral plates 
to be exposed, so that the yellowi h under-colour was visible 
at each contortion; owing, no doubt, to the interlocking of 
the vertebrx, and consequent expenditure of the excess action 
in rolling. 
This serpent, of course, was harmless, so that there would 
have been no danger in grasping it; but it emitted a curious 
sound in its terror, such as I have never heard before or since. 
It screamed, and so loudly, that some people near, who saw 
nothing of what was going on, thought they heard a child cry. 
A snake’s hissing, the only vocal expression of which the 
Ophidia are naturally capable, is produced simply by the rush of 
air through the narrow chink by which the trachea communi- 
cates with the pharynx, without any complex vibratory apparatus 
such as exists in mammals, though this may be prolonged for a 
considerable time on account of the enormous capacity of its 
single lung, I infer, therefore, that this one had just swallowed 
something, and that either its windpipe was not properly re- 
tracted to its normal position, or that the glottis was partially 
occluded by a pellet of mucus or (more probably) a filament of 
some extraneous material, which thus converted the hiss into a 
sort of whistle—just as boys produce a hideous screech by blow- 
ing forcibly on a blade of grass held edgewise between the 
applied knuckles of their two thumbs. Serpents make all sorts 
of noises besides hissing, according to their different kinds; 
Crotali spring their rattles; the carpet-viper (Zchis carinata) 
rubs the imbricated scales of its adjacent coils together ; the 
fer-de-lance (77igonocephalus lanceolatus) is said in St. Lucia to 
give out a series of little taps with its horny extremity; and 
many others—such as the rat-snake (.Sfilotes variabilis) of South 
America—certainly indicate their presence when angry by 
quivering their tails against the ground; but a crying snake 
would have been a decided novelty in one’s collection. 
ARTHUR STRADLING 
UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 
INTELLIGENCE 
OXFORD.—The date of the commencement of the examina- 
tion for the Burdett-Coutts Scholarship has been postponed from 
Monday, Februarv 27, as announced, to Monday, March 6, 
a’ ve as ies * i ie er = 
et a, ae 
NATURE 
ore be 
a) 
SCIENTIFIC SERIALS a 
The Quarterly Fournal of Microscopical Science for January 
1882, contains : Ft Marsal] Ward B.A., report m4 
morphology of the fungus of the coffee disease of Ceylon 
(Hemileia vastatrix, Brs. ard Br.), plates 1, 2, and 3. This 
fungus probably belongs to the Uredines ; still some stru 
such as the curious spore-bearirg head and the long-necked 
haustoria are opposed to this alliance. The history of the adult 
fungus from the uredospore, and the formation of the teleutospores, 
are described and figured.—Dr, F. M. Balfour, on the nature of 
the organ in adult Teleosteans and Ganoids, which is usually 
regarded as the head-kidney or pronephros. It would se 
probable that, though found in the larvae or embryos of alm 
all the Icthyopsida, except the Elasmobranchii, this is always 4 
purely larval organ, which never constitutes an active part of the 
excretory system in the adult forms —Dr. K. Mitsukuri (Japan), — 
on the development of the supra-renal bodies in mammalia (plate 
4).—Pat. Geddes, observations on the resting stage of Ch/amydo- 
myxa labyrinthuloides, Archer (plate 5), some very characteristic 
figures of the resting stage of this strange protean form are given.— 
J. T. Cunningham, a review of recent researches on Karyokinesis 
and cell division (plate 6).—Dr. Reuben T. Harvey, a noteon the — 
organ of Jacobson.—Prof. E. Ray Lankester, on Drepanidium 
ranarum, the cell-parasite of the frog’s blood and spleen 
(Gaule’s Wiirmschen). This very interesting memoir is ilus- 
trated with several woodcut illustrations.— G. F. Dowdeswell, | 
M.A., on the micro-organisms which occur in Septiccemia (plate 
7)-—Prof. Bayley Balfour, Pringsheim’s researches on chloro- _ 
phyll, translated and condensed (plates $ and 9). j 
Journal of Anatomy and Physiology for January, 1882, con- 
tains :—J. G. Smith, M.A., observations on the histology of | 
fracture-repair in man (plates vi. and vii.) ; Dr. H. S. Gabbett, 
colloid degeneration of the non-cystic ovary with associated — 
vascular changes (plate viii.) ; Dr. G. E. Dobson, the phalanx 
missing from certain digits in the manus of Chiroptera; Dr. G. 
Thin, the histology of Aolluscum contagiosum ; Dr. W. Osler, 
case of obliteration of the portal vein; Dr. A. H. Young, on the 
muscular anatomy of the Koala (Phascolarctos cinereus), with 
notes ; Dr. M. Hay, on the action of saline cathartics ; Dr. J. J. 
Charles, some researches on the gases of the bile.—Anatomical 
notices. 
The Fournal of Physiology, vol. iii., Nos. 3 and 4, January, 
1882.—Contents: H. N. Martin and W. T. Sedgwick, obser- 
vations on the mean pressure and the characters of the pulse- 
wave in the coronary arteries of the heart (plates 8-10).—H. 
Sewall, on the polar effects upon nerves of weak induction cur- 
rents. —E. A. Schafer, on the temperature of heat-coagulation 
of certain of the proteid substances of the blood.—F. W. Mott 
and V. Horsley, on the existence of bacteria or their antecedents 
in healthy tissues (plate 11).—S. Ringer, the action of hydrate 
of soda, hydrate of ammonia, and hydrate of potash on the 
ventricle of the frog’s heart (plates 12-13).—C. S. Roy, the 
physiology and pathology of the spleen (plates 14-16).—W. R. 
Gowers, loss of taste from disease of the fifth nerve —H. P. 
Bowditch and W. F. Southard, a comparison of sight and touch 
(plate 17).—]. N. Langley, on the destruction of ferments in 
the alimentary canal.—On the histology of the mammalian 
gastric glands and the relation of pepsin to the granules of the 
chief cells.—E. A. Schafer, simple method of demonstrating 
the alkaloid reaction of the blood. —C, E. Webster, note on the 
production of the heart-sound, 
Morphologisches Fahrbuch, Eine Zeitschrift fiir Anatomie und 
Entwickelungsgeschichte, vol. vii. part 3, 1881, contains—Dr. 
Hans Gadow, a contribution to the myology of the posterior ex- 
tremities of the reptiles (plates 17-21).—Dr. G. von Koch, 
on the anatomy of Clavularia prolifera, sp.n., with notes on the 
buds in some Alcyonaria ; on C, ochracea ; on the connection of 
the buds with the stem in the colony of C. prolifera ; and on the 
relationship of the spicules to the ectoderm (plates 22 and 23). 
—Dr. J. E. V. Boas, on the conus arteriosus and the arch of 
the aorta in the amphibians (plates 24 to 26). 
Niederlandisches Archiv fir Zoologie.—Supplement Band i. 
Part 2 (Leiden, 1881), contains the first half of a very valuable 
paper by Dr. R. Horst, of Utrecht, on the Gephyrea collected 
during the first two voyages of the Willem Sarents.—On 
Hamingia glacialis, n.sp., plate i, and a memoir on /roneo- 
menia sluitert, gen. et. sp. noy., with remarks upon the anatomy 
and histology of the Amphineura, by Dr. A. A, W. Hubrecht, 
