CLASS-BOOK OF ZOOLOGY. 93 



§ 378. Their vertebrae are arranged in such a manner 

 that the animal is able to turn itself in any direction, and 

 even to coil itself like a rope. Each scale is provided 

 with a muscle, by which they are enabled to move them 

 like so many feet. On account of the elasticity of their 

 body, they bend parts of it in the form of arches ; and 

 by bringing together the extremities of these, which touch 

 the ground, one serves as a supporting point in order to 

 project the other with the rapidity of an arrow. 



§ 379. Snakes are subject to a torpidness during the 

 winter ; but as soon as the first warm days of the spring 

 appear, they regain their former activity. This awaking 

 is like a regeneration, because at the same time they cast 

 off entirely their old skin, and a new one with fresh colors 

 covers their glittering body. 



§ 380. The powerful imagination of the ancients re- 

 garded this annual casting of the old skin as the laying 

 aside of old age, and as a regeneration. They therefore 

 represented eternity under the symbol of a snake in the 

 form of a circle ; indicating, that eternity, like a circle, 

 has neither beginning nor end. 



^ 381. Many snakes inspire a general horror; partly 

 on account of their great strength and ferocity ; and partly 

 on account of the venom with which many of them are 

 provided. 



§ 382. Snakes which are venomous have flat scales on 

 their heads, and a tail five or six times shorter than their 

 body. They are also distinguished from the other rep- 

 tiles by being viviparous ; as for instance the rattlesnake 

 and the viper, (a contraction of the word viviparous.) 



§ 383. Venomous Snakes are provided with fangs, which 

 are teeth of a tubular structure, and generally much 

 larger than the others, situated in the anterior part of the 

 upper jaw, and so articulated, as to be elevated or de- 

 pressed at the pleasure of the animal. 



§ 384. These fangs are hooked, like the tusks of a hog. 

 On each fang is a longitudinal opening near its root, be- 

 low which is the venom-bag, from which the poison is 

 discharged into the wound when the animal strikes its 

 victim. 



