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ANALYSES OF BOOKS. 
Snak&s : Curiosities and Wonders of Serpent Life. By Catherine 
C. Hopley. London : Griffith and Farran. 
A popular treatise on serpents may safely be pronounced a 
novelty. Birds, beasts, and fishes — even inserts to some extent 
— have an attraction for the general public, and figure accordingly 
to no small extent in modern literature. But reptiles, and espe- 
cially serpents, are viewed, even by tolerably intelligent persons, 
with a vague horror. No one beyond the very limited circle of 
professed naturalists cares to inquire into the attributes and the 
habits of these creatures. To do so is, indeed, regarded by cer- 
tain of the “ unco’ guid ” as slightly profane. Accordingly we 
are by no means surprised at reading the following passages in 
Miss Hopley’s introduction : — 
“ I learnt enough of snake nature to feel safe in proceeding 
with my book of ‘ Adventures,’ and in presenting it to a publisher. 
‘ As a gift-book no one would look at it, and as an educational 
work there would be no demand for it,’ was its encouraging re- 
ception. . . . For the space of two years the sequel to my 
‘ American Pets ’ went the round of the London publishers of 
juvenile works, and to several in Scotland. It was read by many 
of them who professed to have been extremely interested in it, 
but none could be persuaded to 4 entertain so repulsive a subjeCL’ 
One member of a publishing house, distinguished for the high 
standard of its literature, positively admitted, among its insur- 
mountable objections, that when a child his mother had never 
permitted him to look through a certain favourite volume late in 
the day ‘ for fear the pictures of snakes in it should prevent his 
sleeping ! ’ An editor of a magazine told me he should lose his 
subscribers if he put snakes in its pages, and another made the 
excuse that his children would not look at the magazine with a 
snake in it.” 
Such being the positive repugnance to instruction in this 
branch of Zoology, we need not wonder at the ignorance con- 
cerning serpents which prevails. We find educated people still 
regarding the harmless, and indeed impotent, tongue of snakes 
as a deadly sting. Still less can we feel surprise at the confusion 
that exists in their nomenclature and synonymy. We find seve- 
ral species, some harmless and others deadly, bearing the same 
name, whilst in return one and the same species figures in dif- 
ferent countries, or even provinces, under a variety of names. 
We need only give as an instance our only venomous British 
