58 
OK THE PHYSIOOKOMY OF SERPENTS. 
to the corpora cavernosa of the penis of the superior 
classes of the animal kingdom. Finally, at the distance 
of one or two inches from the anus, this body terminates 
in a conical muscle, so much elongated that it sometimes 
extends to the end of the tail. The apparatus we have 
described, on projection during copulation, inverts itself 
like the finger of a glove, and it is in this state that its 
inner surface, now become the outer, is observed to be 
bristled with prickles. The form of these organs differs in 
different species of Ophidians, both in volume and in 
length ; but no species presents so singular a conformation 
of them as the Coluber canus of the Cape, the false penis of 
which is very long, garnished with numerous, thickly- 
planted, small prickles, each one completely divided, so 
that there are two false penes on each side, or four in all. 
In the same region, in female Ophidians, is found a 
pouch called the anal pouch. It is formed of a white, elas- 
tic, and very tenacious membrane, of which the interior 
surface secretes a foetid liquid, smelling strongly of garlic ; 
when attacked, serpents squirt this liquid through the ori- 
fices of these pouches at the side of the anus. I have dis- 
covered organs extremely similar in the males of several 
species ; they are, in those instances, less developed, and 
are situated below the false penis ; but in a great number 
of Ophidians, the male sex is unprovided with these pouches, 
or they are replaced by a pouch lodged in each side of the 
base of the tail, in the anal cavity itself. 
The organs of generation, properly so called, in Ophi- 
dians, are always found within the abdominal cavity, 
occupying the hypochondric regions in front of the kid- 
neys : the testicles and the ovaries are equally remark- 
able by their slender form, compressed by their position, 
and as wanting the symmetry observed in other animals. 
They are shut up, with the kidneys and the lower part of 
the intestine, in the envelopes of the peritoneum, a mem- 
brane which is often stained of a black colour in the lum- 
bar region, as takes place in various other reptiles, and in 
many fishes. 
The ovaries contain a great many eggs, of varying size, 
and disposed in two rows. The oviduct, in order to re- 
