114 
ON THE PHYSIOONOMY OF SERPENTS. 
wliicli it contains are, for the most part, passable ; but many 
among them are given with very little accuracy. 
A considerable number of figures of serpents, very re- 
cognisable, are to be found in the Museum of Prince Adol- 
phus Frederic, published by Linnjeus, which appeared 
before the last editions of the Sy sterna Naturce, The author 
himself quotes a second volume of this work, in which he 
has been followed by his successors, although that volume 
never was published. To this great man, the inventor of 
the Dichotomic method, we owe the first sketch of a true 
classification of Ophidians these animals formed his se- 
cond tribe of the order of Reptiles, which he thus character- 
izes, Serpentes, apodes, spirantes oreP The six genera 
established by him are founded on characters taken from 
the organization of the general integuments. If we take 
away the genera Amphisbasna and Cascilia, which make a 
part of the Linnaean family of Ophidians, there remain only 
the Crotalus, Boa, Coluber, and Anguis, distinguished by 
the form of the plates below the body. The first genus 
comprehends all those serpents which have the tail provided 
with the noise-making apparatus, known under the desig- 
nation of the rattle ; the Boa is distinguished from the 
Coluber by entire subcaudal plates ; the Anguis has below 
plates similar to the scales on other parts of its body. It 
is obvious, that a method founded on characters, so fugitive 
as those of which Linnaeus availed himself for his system, 
must contradict nature : thus all the natural affinities that 
connect the different species of Ophidians are dissevered in 
his species. We there see the Trigonocephalus by the side 
of the Boa ; his genus Anguis includes at the same time 
the Scinks, the Tortrix, the Typhlops, the Hydrophis, and 
the Ophisaurus. The other serpents are referred to his 
genus Coluber, in which are jumbled the Vipers, the Py- 
thons, the Calamars, the Najas, the Homalopsis, the Dip- 
sas, the Dryiophis, &c. &c. 
All the successors of Linn^us having in some shape fol- 
lowed his method, which they may be said merely to have 
* Syst. Naturce, Ed. xii. p. 347. 
