Snakes: curiosities and wonders of serpent life . olumn. We might say thatin appearance a whale has no neck, but its seven neck jointsare flat and close as seven cards or seven pennies, whilethose of the giraffe are extraordinarily prolonged ; and inourselves—-well, of course, the reader will admit the perfec-tion of symmetry in our own necks, and the seven joints,therefore, are precisely of the proper size. While the spine of a snake is simple in respect of itsjoints being all formed on the same plan, it is the reverseof simple in its wonderfully complex structure. ProfessorHuxley, in his del
Snakes: curiosities and wonders of serpent life . olumn. We might say thatin appearance a whale has no neck, but its seven neck jointsare flat and close as seven cards or seven pennies, whilethose of the giraffe are extraordinarily prolonged ; and inourselves—-well, of course, the reader will admit the perfec-tion of symmetry in our own necks, and the seven joints,therefore, are precisely of the proper size. While the spine of a snake is simple in respect of itsjoints being all formed on the same plan, it is the reverseof simple in its wonderfully complex structure. ProfessorHuxley, in his delightful lecture, said that the most beauti-ful piece of anatomy he knew was the vertebra of a Owen thus anatomically describes it: The verte- 212 SNAKES. brae of serpents articulate with each other by eight joints,in addition to those of the cup and ball on the centrum ;and interlock by parts reciprocally receiving and enteringone another, like the joints called tenon and mortice incarpentry {Anatomy of the Vertebrates, p. 54)..
Size: 1543px × 1618px
Photo credit: © The Reading Room / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, booksubjectserpents, bookyear188
