DE. TH. NEUMANN. 89 



So much the more it seems reasonable to look a little 

 more closely into the natural history of those ill-famed 

 animals, to throw a little more light upon their anatomy 

 and strange habits, and in this way to find some rea- 

 sons for many of the above mentioned prejudices and 

 opinions so inexplicable to our forefathers. 



It would take up far more time, however, than is 

 at my disposal to-night to take the entire order of snakes 

 into consideration ; I should be obliged to lecture several 

 days and should then not yet have exhausted the subject. 

 Allow me, therefore, to draw the line and to restrict 

 myself to that department of Snakedom which has been 

 exposed to grossest misrepresentation, which has given 

 vent to most unheard of stories, and about which still so 

 little of the real truth is known, the department of the 

 Poisonous Snakes. 



Many things, which must be said about these, hold 

 good for both poisonous and innocuous snakes, so that 

 it will not be necessary to dwell at length upon 

 their position in the Animal Kingdom, their general 

 anatomy or their manner of life. Suffice it here to 

 state that snakes belong to the class of Reptiles, the 

 third class of the sub-kingdom of Vertebrates, and that 

 they are characterized by the absence of extremities and 

 breast bone, by their cylindrical, elongated bodies, by 

 their tapering tails and the ability of widening or ex- 

 panding their mouths. Snakes are covered with flat, 

 imbricate, horny scales which in several instances extend 

 as a transparent film over the eyes, and which are thrown 

 off either as a whole or in parts at least once a year. 



The vertebrse in snakes are exceedingly numerous 

 (a skeleton of a python in the British Museum has 422) ; 

 they articulate with each other not only by a cup and 

 ball on the central portion of the vertebse — that is, on 

 the centrum— but also by eight joints in addition to 

 these, which interlock by parts reciprocally receiving 



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