THE 



POPULAR SCIENCE 

 MONTHLY. 



JANUARY, 1871 



CONCERNING SERPENTS. 



By ELIAS LEWIS, Jb. 



FEW animals are more universally feared and detested than ser- 

 pents. Their presence startles us, however inoffensive they may 

 be. Nor can the gracefulness of their motion, or beauty of color, con- 

 quer the discontent we feel when we see them gliding in our path, or 

 coiled and glistening in the sunshine, in which they delight. The 

 enjoyment of many a summer's ramble has been impaired from this 

 cause, and we fear our article may be as distasteful to many persons 

 as are the objects of which it treats. But we may remember that ser- 

 pents, no less than more attractive creatures, are important in Na- 

 ture's economies. Their structure is a marvel of mechanical adapta- 

 tion, less complicated, perhaps, but as perfect in every detail as is 

 that of mammals and birds, and the mechanism which rolls the human 

 eye is not more complete, and scarcely more wonderful, than that 

 which moves the fangs of a viper. Perhaps, in the study of Nature, 

 we should estimate objects by their fitness, rather than by their at- 

 tractiveness or beauty. 



" The serpent," observes Prof. Owen, " is too commonly looked 

 down upon as an animal degraded from a higher type. . . . But it 

 can outclimb the monkey, outswim the fish, outleap the jerboa ; it has 

 neither hands nor talons, yet it can outwrestle the athlete, and crush 

 the tiger in its embrace." Serpents, in their mode of locomotion, are 

 creeping animals, as their name implies, and constitute an order of the 

 great class Reptiles. This term also implies creeping, but includes 

 orders of animals which have limbs for locomotion, and do not creep. 

 Of these, turtles, lizards, and crocodiles, are familiar instances ; so that 

 animals of several species, which run, walk, or swim, are included in 

 the same class with those which creep. All of these, however, are 

 cold-blooded, the temperature of the body differing but few degrees 

 from that of the surrounding air or water. Their coldness is always 

 VOL. iv. — 17 



