294 CLASS REPTILIA. 



savours. It serves more for deglutition than gustation, which 

 should naturally be the case with animals which do not 

 masticate. In a state of repose it is most usually shut up 

 within a membranous sheath. 



The sensation of touch in these reptiles exists of course 

 in all the parts of the body which can embrace objects ; but 

 it is blunted by the scales and by the corneous epidermis 

 which embraces them in all parts. This epidermis is re- 

 moved at least once a year, carrying off with it even the 

 most superficial membranous leaf of the eyelid, and the 

 animal gets rid of it in the form of a sort of sheath, or like 

 a glove turned inside out ; that part which was inside when 

 the body was covered with it, being now outside. 



The mucous body which exists under the scales has very 

 lively and very varied colours in the ophidians, the teguments 

 of which, in other respects, present no appearance of the 

 papillary tissue which constitutes a part of the skin of man 

 and so many other vertebrated animals. But it has for its 

 basis a very strong and thick dermis placed under the scales, 

 or in other words, under certain compartments of the skin, 

 between which the epidermis sinks and moulds itself, and 

 the figure and disposition of which varies greatly according to 

 the species. 



The ophidians, as may be seen from the text, have in many 

 species certain little appendages from the nostrils or muzzle. 

 Thus one coecilia has two little barbies dependent from the 

 nostrils. The erpeton of Lacepede has two tentaculas on the 

 muzzle. The ammodytes, a small fleshy eminence on the 

 nose. The cerastes a mobile horn above each eye. It is a 

 question whether all these appendages are to be considered as 

 organs of tact. 



These reptiles feed on living flesh and insects, worms, 

 and moUusca, never drink, and cannot suck, digest slowly, 

 and eat seldom, especially in the cold season. One repast 



