38 
ACCOUNT 
OP THE 
SCOLIOPHIS ATLANTICUS. 
SjwAias, flexuosus, if if, serpens.* 
About four weeks after the foregoing depositions had been 
received, a serpent of remarkable appearance was brought from 
Gloucester to Boston, and exhibited as the progeny of the great 
serpent. It had been killed upon the sea shore by some labour¬ 
ing people of Cape Ann. Capt. Beach jun. the possessor, very 
liberally submitted it to examination, and permitted an opening 
to be made in the side for the inspection of its internal structure. 
The following appearances were the result of this examination. 
External appearance. 
The animal had the general form and external characters of 
a serpent; but was remarkably distinguished from all others of 
that class known to your Committee, by a row of protuberances 
along the back, apparently formed by undulations of the spine. 
From the back of the head to the first of these protuberances, 
was a distance of three inches and three fifths of an inch, during 
which the spine was straight, Between this place and the vent, 
its undulations were nearly regular, twenty four of these protu¬ 
berances, about equally distant from each other, occupying the 
space between the neck and the vent. From the latter to the 
twenty fifth protuberance, the spine formed a straight line, of the 
length of one inch and nine tenths; its undulations there com¬ 
menced again, and were continued quite to the extremity of the 
tail, forming sixteen more distinct protuberances. The size of 
these forty protuberances was proportioned to that of the body 
at the places, where they were respectively situated. The body 
* Sxo/uW/5, apud Hippocratem, Spiim distortio. 
