HISTORY OF OPHIOLOHY. 
121 
artificial. How is it that the Elaps and Naja, Ophidians 
whose jaws are furnished, besides the fangs, with solid 
teeth, have been arranged among the venomous serpents 
with isolated fangs ! The Langaha is also in that division, 
although neither its form nor its structure offer the least 
analogy to venomous serpents. We see in the same sys- 
tem the Boa, the Python, and the Acrochordus, figure in 
four different families. The Scytale coronatus and the 
Eryx, form a part of the genus Boa ; the Uropeltis (the 
true Typhlops) is found in the series, whilst the Xenopel- 
tis has been excluded from it to take its place among the 
Colubri. These remarks will suffice to shew to how many 
errors the principle of classing serpents according to the 
form of the subcaudal plates, has given rise. 
Besides the works of Lacepede, of Latreille, and of 
Daudin, we possess a complete enumeration of the Imown 
species of serpents, published in 1820 by Merrem.^ The 
author, in adopting the great divisions of Ophidians into 
venomous and innocent, has arranged most of the latter 
in the genus Coluber, a denomination which he has very 
inappropriately changed to Natrix; and he terminates a 
long series of these animals by the genus Dryinus. At 
the head of the harmless serpents are found, — 1st, The 
Acrochordus ; 2d, The Bhinopirus, a name substituted 
for Herpeton ; 3d, The Tortrix, a medley of the genera 
Tortrix, Eryx, Typhlops, Acontias, &c. ; 4th, The Eryx ; 
5th and 6th, The Boa and the Python, genera which in- 
clude a great many heterogeneous species ; 7th, The 
Scytale, a confused melange, which is followed by, 8th, 
The Hurriah, a reunion as absurd as the name which de- 
signates them. Merrem has taken care, in his distribu- 
tion of venomous serpents, to adopt almost all the generic 
names invented by his predecessors ; he has multiplied 
their number by the addition of several new designations ; 
his Sepedon is established in favour of the Naja Haema- 
chates ; his Pelias includes a Viper and a Trigonocephalus ; 
his Echis reposes on the Vipers. But this learned man, 
without the least necessity, has introduced numerous 
changes in the nomenclature ; such are the introduction of 
^ Tentamen Systematis A'inphibiorum, Marburgi, 1820. 
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