OF THE GLANDS. 
4:5 
extremity of the maxillary bone^ several teeth longer than 
the rest ; the teeth of the Dryiophis and Psammophis are 
very unequal, and we find several very long at the middle 
of the jaws and at the posterior part of the maxillaries ; 
those teeth, as also the posterior teeth of certain species of 
the genera Dipsas, Homalopsis, &c., are often grooved, 
whilst other Ophidians, as the Xenodon, the Coronella, 
several Homalopsis, &c., have the posterior part of the 
maxillary furnished with a very large but solid tooth. It 
is evident that the number of teeth must vary according 
to the development of the maxillary and the dental bone 
of the lower jaw. In most of the genus Coluber, each of 
these branches contain from twenty to twenty-five teeth ; 
those teeth are less numerous in the Homalopsis, the Tor- 
trix, the Calamaria, and are reduced to a very few in the 
venomous serpents. We have stated above, that the 
maxillary bone of venomous serpents, properly so called, 
is only armed with the fangs ; but this bone, having a 
larger development in the colubriform venomous snakes^ 
most frequently carries one or more solid teeth behind 
the fangs.^ 
OF THE GLANDS. 
The salivary glands of serpents present sensible modi- 
fications in size, situation, and form, not only in the 
different genera of this order, but also in different species. 
Their volume is invariably greater in innocuous species than 
in those also furnished with a poison gland. The glands 
are denominated from their position ; as nasal, lachrymal, 
&c, ; and we subdivide those about the jaws into maxillary 
and mandibular. All these salivary glands, although of 
* The Tropidonotus rudis presents a very singular anomaly in the 
presence of points of enamel in the guise of teeth, placed on the extre- 
mities of the inferior spinous processes of the seven or eight last verte- 
bras towards the head. These teeth are directed backwards, and recall 
those of the fjyprinus and of certain Crustacea ; but their use, to judge 
by their direction, is perhaps analogous to that of the conical appendages 
of the (Esophagus in marine Tortoises. They perforate the tunics of the 
(Esophagus, and shew themselves distinctly in the interior of the canal, 
even in very young subjects. 
