CONCERNING SERPENTS. 



267 



served, is an object of veneration, and is regarded with peculiar 

 deference. If found in their houses, as it frequently is, it must be pet- 

 ted, cared for, tenderly fed, and propitiated, for it is an object of wor- 

 ship, and occupies a high place in the mythology of the Hindoos. 

 Indeed, the worship of serpents seems to have been widely adopted, 

 and figures more or less in a vast number of the religions of the world. 

 It is often referred to in the Scriptures, and is a subject of elaborate 

 discussion in the profoundly learned and interesting volume of Fer- 

 guson, on " Tree and Serpent Worship." 



We mentioned the fact that in most species serpents have but one 

 fully-developed lung. Into the cavity of this the trachea or windpipe 

 terminates, and it has been stated that they " in a manner swallow 

 air." What takes place in the process of breathing appears to be 

 this. Unlike mammals, serpents have no diaphragm, but by a move- 

 ment of the ribs the cavity of the body is enlarged, and, a pressure 

 being thus removed, the lung inflates and expands by the air passing 

 into it. Another and opposite movement of the ribs expels the air, 

 whence it appears that their process of breathing is essentially the 

 same as in mammals. Nor are their lungs in structure essentially 

 different. The air sacs or cells communicate with the principal pul- 

 monary tube, but a vastly smaller surface is exposed to the inhaled 

 air, and aeration of the blood is consequently extremely imperfect and 

 incomplete. 



Fig. 9. 



Small Viperine Snake ( Tropidonotus Viperimts). 



Serpents are without proper organs of voice, the vibrating mem- 

 branes being absent. The passage of air into and out of the lungs, if 

 hurried and rapid, produces a hissing noise, the only voice possible to 

 them, but which we fear makes less interesting their somewhat unpre- 

 possessing features. 



