File:Animal and vegetable physiology, considered with reference to natural theology, by Peter Mark Roget (1834) (14775902951).jpg

Identifier: animalandvegetab01roge (find matches)
Title: Animal and vegetable physiology, considered with reference to natural theology, by Peter Mark Roget ..
Year: 1834 (1830s)
Authors: Roget, Peter Mark, 1779-1869
Subjects: Biology Physiology Plant physiology Natural theology
Publisher: London : W. Pickering
Contributing Library: University of California Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

View Book Page: Book Viewer
About This Book: Catalog Entry
View All Images: All Images From Book
Click here to view book online to see this illustration in context in a browseable online version of this book.

Text Appearing Before Image:
hlops crocotatus, and is of opinion that they existmuch more generally in this order of reptiles, than has beencommonly imagined. Some serpents, as the Boa, Python, Tor-tryx and Eryx, have claws, which may be considered as rudi-ments of feet, visible externally. In others, as the Anguis, Typh-lops, and Amphisbcena, they exist concealed under the skin. 48 THE MECHANICAL FUNCTIONS. formation of the skull and bones of the face,they present strong analogies with batrachianreptiles, and also with fishes, one tribe of which,namely, the apodous or anguilliform fishes,they greatly resemble by the length and flexi-bility of the spine. These peculiarities of con-formation may be in a great measure traced tothe mode of life for which they are destined. In others, he has discovered cartilaginous filaments, which heconceives to correspond to these parts. (Annales des SciencesNaturelles, VII. 170.) Some of these are represented in thefollowing figures. Fig. 203 exhibits the claw of the Boa con- 203
Text Appearing After Image:
209 stridor, placed at the termination of a series of bones, repre-senting very imperfectly the bones of the lower extremities. Fig.204 shows the muscles attached to these small bones. The threefollowing figures, 205, 206, and 207, represent the claws andrudimental bones of the Tortrix scytale, Tortrix corallinus, andAnguis fragilis, respectively. Those of the Amphisbcena alba,Fig. 208, and the Coluber pullafus, Fig. 209, are still less de-veloped. The Chalcides, or snake lizard, which has four minutefeet, is represented in Fig. 210. SERPENTS. 449 The food assigned to them is lining prey, whichthey must attack and vanquish before they canconvert it into nourishment. The usual modein which the hoa seizes and destroys its victimsis by coiling the hinder part of its body roundthe trunk or branch of a tree, keeping the headand anterior half of the body disengaged ; andthen, by a sudden spring, fastening upon thedefenceless object of its attack, and twining roundits body, so as to compress

Note About Images