Definition of Serpent. 
389 
CHAPTER XVII. 
The word insect, from the Latin* in, and seco, to cut, 
was given originally to such small creatures 
whose bodies appear to be cut in, or almost 
divided, or, as Topsell calls them, cut-wasted. Insects are 
included by Topsell in his General Treatise of Serpents. 
He could not place these many-legged creatures with four- 
footed beast, and was therefore compelled thus oddly to 
classify them. He thus defines the word serpent — 
“ By serpents we understand in this discourse all venomous beasts, 
whether creeping without legs, as adders, and snakes, or with legs, as 
crocodiles and lizards, or more neerly compacted bodies, as toads, 
spiders, and bees. . . . Aristotle and Galen define a serpent to be ani¬ 
mal sanguineum pedibus orbatum et oviparum , that is, a bloudy beast 
without feet, yet laying egges; and so properly is a serpent to be under¬ 
stood. . . . And thus much for the name in general, which in Holy 
Scripture is Englished a creeping thing.” (Page 598, ed. 1658.) 
The phrase in Leviticus (xi. 20), “ All fowls that creep, 
going upon all four, shall be an abomination unto you,” is 
thus explained by Professor Bush, in his notes on this 
chapter:— 
“ That insects are here meant is plain from the following verse; and, 
therefore, the sense is, f all those creatures which fly and also creep, 
going upon all four,’ i.e. } creeping along upon their feet in the manner 
of quadrupeds, such as flies, wasps, bees, etc., together with all leaping 
insects ; these are to be avoided as unclean, with the exceptions in the 
next two verses.” 
