306 HALLOWELL ON SOME NEW REPTILES, &c. 



are venomous from those which are not so." He arrives at the conclusion that the 

 only mode of distinguishing a venomous from a non-venomous serpent is by an 

 examination of their teeth ; the tail, which is usually short in the venomous species 

 being sometimes short in the innocuous. This is the case in Pityophis affinis, and 

 melanoleucus, both harmless serpents, with very short tails. Serpents whose 

 appearance indicates inoffensiveness are not unfrequently very dangerous, as in the 

 instance above cited, and in that of the genus Sepedon of Merrem, and Distichurus 

 maculatus, which is quite small, and resembles in its general appearance an ordinary 

 Coluber, but is provided with a small isolated fang on each side of the upper jaw. 

 One of these, I have been informed, killed a black woman in Western Africa, death 

 ensuing a short time after the bite ; so that, as a general rule, it is best for travellers 

 to avoid all serpents, unless they be naturalists and well acquainted with their 

 structure and habits. In Bucephalus, a genus established by Dr. Andrew Smith, 

 found in South Africa, the posterior teeth are larger than the rest, and grooved upon 

 their anterior and convex surface, as is the case also in Dryophis and Dipsas. 

 Bucephalus, according to Dr. Smith, has six rows of teeth in the upper jaw, which is 

 very remarkable, most serpents having but four. In Vol. iv., p. 39, of the 

 Proceedings of the Academy, mention is made by Dr. Savage of a wood sawyer 

 having been bitten by a green serpent, while in the act of preparing a log for the saw, 

 probably one of the species above described. The wound was in the foot, which was 

 swollen, as was also the leg as high as the knee. Strong rum and Sulphate of Morphia 

 were administered, and a free incision was made over tlie wound. Passive 

 hemorrhage ensuing, the vessels were taken up and tied ; the whole limb up to the 

 groin became enormously swollen ; a bad sore followed the incision, and the cuticle 

 of the limb to a great extent came off. He recovered at the end of three weeks.* 



* Proceedings of Acad. Nat. Sci., December, 1852. 



