482 



MR. G. "W. BUTLER ON THE 



[June 14, 



Suborder COLUBRIFORMIA (confinwed). 



Dryadin/E. 

 Fam. DENDKOPHID^. 

 Fam. DEYOPHID^. 

 Fam. PSAMMOPHID^. 

 Fam. DIPSADID.E. 



Fam. SOYTALID^. 

 Fam. LYCODONTID^. 

 Fam. AOKOCHOEDID^. 



Suborder III. PROTEROGLYPHA. 



Fam. ELAPID^. 

 Fam. HYDEOPHID-E. 



Suborder IV. SOLENOGLYPHA. 



Fam. VIPEEIDyE. 



JDendrophis picta ... 

 Dryophk prasina ... 

 Coelopdfis lacertina 

 Dipsas ceylonensis ... 

 Leptodeira rufcsccns 



Lamprophis rufescens. 



Elaps fulviun 



Hi/drophis fi/.tehifd . 

 T'rJaiiiis hicolor .... 



Fam. CEOTALIDtE. 



Vipera berus 



,, aspis 



„ arietans .. 



„ nasicornis 

 Crotalus durissits. . 



§ IV. On the Subdivision of the Body-cavity in the Adult Snake. 



(0). Preliminary, and as to certain Extra-peritoneal 

 Lymph-spaces. 



Once one knows what to look for and where to find it, it is not 

 difficult to make out the relations of the jieritoneum.in Snakes of 

 ordinary size, such as the Common Grass-Snake {Tropidonotus natrix) 

 or the Common Vipei' ( Vipera beriis). But without such knowledge 

 it is, judging by my own t.Kperience, not so easy. 



I may perhaps be excused then if, in descriliing what is seen, I 

 explain how to find it. I have spoken simply of the peritoneum, 

 because, as may with advantage be stated here, the pleural cavity 

 or cavities appear to be obliterated in all the Snakes I have examined 

 [this will be discussed later, § VI.]. All my specimens have been 

 more or less hardened in spirits, and it would seem that sometimes 

 specimens which on the outside appear unduly soft are well adapted 

 to our present purpose. 



To dissect a Snake, insert scissors between the skin and the ribs, 

 and cut all along the body from the region of the heart to the 

 cloaca, keeping rather to one side of the mid-ventral line, with the 

 scissor-points close under the skin. Having then turned back the 

 skin from the ventral side of the animal, nothing is simpler than to 

 ease away outwards on each side the ribs and the muscles of the 

 body-wall, so far as they close in the ventral side. We then see, 

 stretching from about the hinder end of the liver to not far from 

 the cloaca, the well-known fat-bodies, sheathed ventrally by mem- 

 branous tissue, which laterally wraps round outside all the viscera 

 including the kidneys. 



Now, first, as to these fat-bodies. If the Snake under examination 

 be a Python or a Cylindrophis rufa (and I think I might add the 



