BOOK IX.

OF REPTILES, AND THE INHABITANTS OF

THE WATERS.

CHAP. 1.

HA

OF REPTILES.

AVING dispatched the infect-tribe, there is but one genus of the land-animals remaining to be furveyed, and that is, that of reptiles". Which

"Notwithstanding I have before, in book iv. chap. 12. taken notice of the earth-worm; yet it being a good example of the Creator's wife and curious workmanship, in even this meanest branch of the creation, I fhall fuperadd a few farther remarks from Drs. Willis and Tyfon. Saith Willis, Lumbricus terreftris, ⚫ licet vile et contemptibile habetur, organa vitalia, necnon et alia vifcera et membra divino artificio admirabiliter fabrefacta fortitur :

Which I fhall difpatch in a little compass, by reafon I have fomewhat amply treated of others and many of the things may be applied here. But there are fome things in which this tribe is fomewhat fingular, which I fhall therefore take notice of briefly in this place. One is their motion, which I have in another place taken notice of to be not lefs curious, than it is different from that

totius corporis compages mufculorum annularium catena eft, quorum fibræ orbiculares contractæ quemque annulum, prius amplum, et dilatum, anguftiorem et longiorem reddunt.' [This muscle in earth-worms 1 find is spiral, as in a good measure is their motion likewife; fo that by this means they can, like the worm of an augre, the better bore their paffage into the earth. Their ⚫ reptile motion alfo may be explained by a wire wound on a cylinder, which when flipped off, and one end extended and held faft, will bring the other near it. So the earth-worm, having fhot out, or extended its body, which is with a wreathing, it takes hold by thofe fmall feet it hath, and fo contracts the hinder part of its body.' Thus the curious and learned Dr. Tyson, Philof. Tranf. No. 147.) Nam proinde cum corporis portio fuperior elongata, et exporrecta, ad fpatium alterius extenditur, ibidemque plano affigitur, ad ipsum quafi ad centrum portio corporis inferior • relaxata, et abbreviata facile pertrahitur. Pedunculi ferie quadruplici, per totam longitudinem lumbrici difponuntur; his quafi 'totidem uncis, partem modo hanc, modo iftam, plano affigit, dum alteram exporrigit, aut poft fe ducit. Supra oris hiatum, probofcide, qua terram perforat et elevat, donatur.' And then he goes on with the other parts that fall under view, the brain, the gullet, the heart, the fpermatic veffels, the ftomachs and intestines, the foramina on the top of the back, adjoining to each ring, supplying the place of lungs, and other parts. Willis de Anim. Brut. P. 1. c. 3.

See book iv. chap. 8.

There

that of other animals, whether we confider the manner of it, as vermicular, or finuous P, or like that of the fnail 9, or the caterpillar, or the multipedous

There is a great deal of geometrical neatness and nicety, in the finuous motion of fnakes, and other ferpents. For the affifting in which action, the annular fcales under their body are very remarkable, lying cross the belly, contrary to what those in the back, and the reft of the body do; also as the edges of the forem oft fcales lie over the edges of their following scales, from head to tail; fo thofe edges run out a little beyond, or over their following scales; fo as that when each scale is drawn back, or set a little upright, by its mufcle, the outer edge thereof, or foot it may be called, is raised alfo a little from the body, to lay hold on the earth, and fo promote and facilitate the ferpent's motion. This is what may be easily seen in the flough, or belly of the ferpent-kind. But there is another admirable piece of mechanifm, that my antipathy to those animals hath prevented my prying into; and that is, that every scale hath a diftinct mufcle, one end of which is tacked to the middle of its scale; the other, to the upper edge of its following scale. This Dr. Tyfon found in the rattle-fnake, and I doubt not is in the whole tribe.

The wife author of nature, having denied feet and claws to enable fnails to creep and climb, hath made them amends in a way more commodious for their state of life, by the broad skin along each fide of the belly, and the undulating motion obfervable there. By this latter it is they creep; by the former, affifted with the glutinous flime emitted from the fnail's body, they adhere firmly and fecurely to all kinds of fuperficies, partly by the tenacity of their flime, and partly by the preffure of the atmosphere. Concerning this part, which he calls the fnail's feet, and their undulation, fee Dr. Lifter's Exercit. Anat. 1. fect. 1. and 37.

The motive parts, and motion of caterpillars, are useful, not only to their progreffion and conveyance from place to place; but

alfo

multipedous, or any other way; or the parts miniftering to it, particularly the fpinet, and the mufcles co-operating with the fpine, in fuch as have bone, and the annular, and other muscles, in fuch as have none, all incomparably made for thofe curious, and, I may fay, geometrical various

alfo to their more certain, easy, and commodious gathering of food : for having feet before and behind, they are not only enabled to go by a kind of steps made by their fore and hind-parts; but also to climb up vegetables, and to reach from their boughs and stalks for food at a distance: for which fervices their feet are very nicely made both before and behind. Behind, they have broad palms for sticking to, and these beset almost round with small sharp nails, to hold and grasp what they are upon before, their feet are sharp and hooked, to draw leaves, &c. to them, and to hold the fore-part of the body, whilst the hinder-parts are brought up thereto. But no thing is more remarkable in these reptiles, than that these parts and motions are only temporary, and incomparably adapted only to their prefent nympha-ftate; whereas in their aurelia-state, they have neither feet nor motion, only a little in their hinder-parts and in the mature ftate, they have the parts and motion of a flying infect, made for flight.

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It is a wonderful pretty mechanism, obfervable in the going of multipedes, as the juli, and scolopendræ, that on each fide the body, every leg hath its motion, one very regularly following the other from one end of the body to the other, in a way not easy to be described in words; fo that their legs in going, make a kind of undulation, and give the body a fwifter progreffion than one would imagine it fhould have, where fo many feet are to take so many short steps.

• Vertebrarum apophyfes breviores funt, præcipue juxta caput cujus propterea flexus in averfum, et latera, facilis viperis eft;

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various windings and turnings, undulations, and all the various motions to be met with in the reptile kind.

ANOTHER thing that will deferve our notice, is, the poison" that many of this tribe are ftocked with. Which I the rather mention, because fome make it an objection against the divine fuperintendence and providence, as being a thing so far from ufeful, they think, that it is rather mifchievous

fecus leonibus, &c. Incumbit his offibus ingens mufculorum minu. ⚫ torum præfidium, tum spinas tendinum exilium magno apparatu de⚫ ducentium, tum vertebras potiffimum in diversa flectentium, atque ' erigentium. Adeoque illam corporis miram agilitatem, non tan • tum, (ur Ariftot.) ὅτι εὐκαμπεὶς καὶ χονδρώδεις δι σπόνδυλοι, quoniam faciles ad flexum, et cartilagineas produxit vertebras, fed quia etiam multiplicia motus localis inftrumenta mufculos fabrefecit ⚫ provida rerum parens natura, confecuta fuit.' Blaf. Anat. Anim. p. 1. c. 39. de Vipera e Veftingio.

That which is more remarkable in the vertebræ (of the ' rattle-fnake, befides the other curious articulations,) is, that the round ball in the lower part of the upper vertebra, enters a focket of the upper part of the lower vertebra, like as the head of the os femoris doth the acetabulum of the os ifchii; by which contrivance, as alfo the articulation with one another, they have that free motion of winding their bodies any way.' Dr. Tyfon's Anat of the Rattle-snake in Philofoph. Tranf. No. 144. What is here observed of the vertebræ of this fnake, is common to this whole genus of reptiles.

My ingenious and learned friend, Dr. Mead, examined with his microfcope, the texture of a viper's poison, and found therein

at