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is of a flender form, with the general appearance of a 

 coluber rather than a boa. It is of an extremely dark blue 

 colour, fo as to appear almoft black in certain lights, and 

 is marked throughout the whole length of the upper part 

 by feveral tranfverfe curved and dotted white lines at 

 unequal diftances, and varying in number in different indi- 

 viduals, from about 42 to 50 : they are fo difpofed, as 

 almoft to reprefent fo many large fpotted circles. Dr. 

 Shaw has given an account of fome experiments on this 

 animal, to whofe work we refer our readers. See General 

 Zoology, vol. iii. part ii. 



HoRATTA. This is of a dark brown, with a waving 

 yellow band on each fide, and a row of dorfal fpots. This 

 is one of the fmaller fpecies, meafuring only about fifteen 

 inches in length. The fangs, or poifoning organs of this 

 fnake, fhew that it is noxious, but in what degree has never 

 been afcertained ; it is, however, faid to be one of the moil 

 fatal. 



Palpebrosa. Whitifli, obfcurely fafciated with grey ; 

 with prominent eye-lids ; this has 1 1 2 abdominal fcuta, and 

 51 on the tail. 



An'nclaia. Subferruginous, with black, orbicular, dor- 

 fal fpots included in rings ; reniform, ocellated, lateral fpots, 

 and abdomen- undulated with dufcy variegations. This is 

 about two feet long, and in its general appearance it is allied 

 to the B. hortularia and enydris. It is a native of South 

 America. 



Serpents, in JJlronomy, a conllellation in the northern 

 hemifphere, called more particularly Serpens Ophiuchi. The 

 ftars in the conftellation Serpens, in Ptolemy's catalogue, 

 are 18; in Tycho's, 13 ; in Hevelius's, 22; and in the 

 Britannic catalogue, 64. See Constellation. 



Serpent Cucumber, in Botany. See Trichosanthes. 

 Serpens Hypnotkus. See Hypnoticus. 

 Serpens Marinus. See Sea Snake. 

 Serpens Rubefcens, the redferpent-fijh, in Ichthyology, the 

 name of a fifh, properly of the t^nia kind. 



It refembles the common fnake in figure, and is of a fine 

 ftrong red in colour, and marked with oblique lines all down 

 the fides, and long ones from the gills to the tail, one on each 

 fide ; its mouth is but fmall, and its teeth (harp and ferrated ; 

 and it has all over its back a number of fine capillaments, fet 

 at diftances from one another, even to the tail, and the fame 

 on the belly ; its tail ends in a fingle fin. 



Serpens Terrenus, the earth-ferpent, a name given by 

 fome of the chemical writers to nitre. It was originally 

 given to the nitre of the ancients, a fait very different from 

 that which we call nitre, but it has fince been applied alfo to 

 that fait. 



SERPENT-5/onfJ. See ^v.w.^-Stoms. 

 SKKPEt^T^Fi-Tongue, in Botany, a genus of tlie cryptogamia 

 JHUes clafs ; comprehending five fpecies. See Adder's- 

 tongue. 



Serpents' Tongues. The ifland of Malta abounds with 

 gloffopetra;, or the petrified teeth of fharks, which, from 

 their refemblance to a tongue, are by the vulgar fuppofed 

 to be the tongues of ferpents turned into ilone by fome 

 miracle of St. Paul, when he was there. This idand abounds 

 not only with thefe, but with bufonitse, and valt numbers 

 of other remains of fea produftions. 



Augnftino Scilla, who has written at large on the foffils 

 of this ifland, gives a very rational account of their being the 

 real remains of animals, which, according to hi» fyftem, it is 

 no way wonderful to find<here. 



In regard to the ifland of Malta, which fo abounds with 

 them at this time, he fuppofes that long fince the time of the 

 creation, and even without the afliftance of the general 



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deluge, it may have been formed out of the fea, and that it 

 appears plainly to have been at firft no other than a mafs of 

 foft mud, with an immenfe number of fea-ftiells, teeth of 

 fifties, and other remains of fea-animals mingled among it ; 

 and that thefe fubfiding as low as they could among that 

 thickening matter, have made the ifland what we now find 

 it, that is, a heap of earth with thefe things in vaft quan- 

 tities buried in it, and at different depths. Philof. Tranf. 

 N" 219, p. 182. 



And though there are found among thefe teeth, &c. in 

 the ifland of Malta, great quantities of ftiells, of fuch fpecies 

 as arc not natives of thofe feas, this is no objedlion to the 

 opinion ; fince it is well known, that the winds, when violent, 

 as they probably were about the time of the formation of 

 that ifland, will bring fuch light bodies as ftiells a vaft way 

 in water. 



The mountains of Sicily afford fome few glofl'opetrse, or 

 fnakes' tongues, but they are few in number, and worfe pre- 

 pared than thofe of the ifland of Malta ; which is probably 

 owing to the high ground of thofe mountains being lefs likely 

 to receive the refufe of the fea, and its foil, which is fandy, 

 being lefs fitted to preferve them when there than the marie, 

 of which the ifland of Malta confifts. 



The echini mavini, or fea-eggs, and their fpecies, which 

 are very frequent among the ferpents' tongues of Malta, all 

 lie upon the furface of the ground, or near it ; whereas the 

 gloffopetrx lie deeper, though at no great depth. Tliis is a 

 plain effeft of all thefe things having been really anim.al 

 bodies, and having floated in the mud, of which that ifland 

 was formed ; for m this it could not be otherwife, but that 

 the gloffopetrx, or ferpents' tongues, being heavy, would 

 fubfide in the water, while the light ftiells of thefe other 

 animals would float on or near the furface. 



Whenever the gloflopetrse are taken carefully up out of 

 the earth in Malta, the marie or earth, which ferved for 

 their bed, is found to contain all their minuteft traces and 

 lineaments, like wax from a feal. This is a proof that the 

 niarle was as foft as melted wax when they were put into 

 it, and that they were of the full fize and growth when 

 placed there, not having grown, or had any increafe in that 

 place. 



The apophyfes, or proceft'es in the gloffopetrse, are alfo a 

 ftrong proof of their being no other than real iharks' teeth, 

 fince they exatlly anfwer to thofe in the teeth of recent 

 ftiarks, by which every tooth is received or inferted into its 

 neighbour in the jaw. Nay, whereas ftiarks' teeth are mor- 

 tifed into one another in fuch a manner, that a man may 

 eafily tell which belongs to each fide, which lie near the 

 throat, and which near the front of the mouth ; and whereas, 

 in a ftiark's mouth, the teeth on the left fide will not fit on 

 the right, nor thofe above ferve below, but that on feeing 

 a recent tooth, a perfon of judgment will be able to fay 

 what part of the mouth it belonged to ; fo in the foffile 

 ftiarks' teeth, or gloffopetrse, there is not any one which may 

 not be referred to the particular part of the mouth of the 

 living animal, and could have belonged to no other. Au- 

 guftino Scilla, de Petrifac. See Glossopetha. 



Serpent, in Mufic, a wind inftrument of the baffoon 

 kind, blown by a mouth-piece. It has its name from ite 

 ferpentine figure ; and is compofed of two pieces of walnut- 

 tree-wood, and covered with thin leather or ftiagreen. 



This inltrument has fix holes, whicli give it a compafs of 

 twenty-feven notes. The mouth-piece is fixed in a focket of 

 copper or filver. Its neck is curved, and its mouth-piece 

 is of wood or ivory. 



It is held in fuch a manner, as that the fore-finger, the 

 middle-finger, and the ring-finger of the left hand, caa itop 



the 



