Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1859-03-29
sTAJNTON VIRGINIA, TUESDAY MARCH %, 1859
How serpents Crawl Without Legs.

How Serpents Crawl Without Legs.
Although deprived of feet, fins and other OBJ
vious members for walking, the serpent glides
on the earth, ascends trees, or even directs
its course through the waters with surprising
agility, and with graceful eyolutions; yet the
serpent was cursed above every beast OF the
field and man, as if remembering the curse
turns from the reptile with disgust and horror
or seeks to effect its instant destruction. Let us
all examine how all this is effected, and first to
the spinal column. 'le.,g ,-.''tes 2i1asga
The numerous bones or vertebre which form
this chain, are united together by ball and sock.
ct articulations, OF. in other words, the rounded
head of each is fitted into cup4ike cavity in its
predecessor, SO that the whole column is chain
OF these joints, capable of the utmost mobility
with the safety of the spinal cord en-
closed within. The artioulations can only be
moved from side to side; and their progress by
undulatons, as is seen in many old prints OF SER
pents, is anatomically impossible. Y I,A'
So also it is impossible for the snake to per-
form the feat which has been ascribed to him,
when he wishes to go quickly downs q hill for,
according to an absurd story, he is said to- put
his tail in his mouth, and roll himself down, be-
ing in the form of q hoop. 1t is just as well to
recollect the fact that snake cannot turn him
self directly upwards when held by the tail. lie
can wriggle fanously from side to side, but Ger.
tainly not upwards Hence it follows, that the
best way TO handle snake is TO hold him out at
arms length; in this position he can do no
harm. s 1o'e+ -5l.
But how, it will be asked, does the snake con-
trive to get along the ground SO fast, as ne has
no perceptible legs or arms to help himf Ibis
is managed as follows TO each vertebr@-a
a large snake has many dozen vertebfas-is at;
tached apair fribs; the small ends OF these
ribs are not attached to q sternum, or breast
bone, ss in man, to q single scatum or scale on
the abdomen by means OF slender cartilage and
a set of short muscles. 1t is on the points of
these ribs, which may be compared to the legs
of q millipede that the snake rests !; and they
act in progressive ORDER just like the legs of that
creature, each pair bringing forward the plate
or scutum to which it is attached. This row OF
scuta may thus be regarded as one long ample
foot. Sir E. Home, in his Comparative Anat-
omy', gives an account Of the muscles which
arising from the ribs, give motion to the scuta.
He observes, that the rib in tie snake performs
TWO functions; the upper halt is concerned In
the lower in locomotion.
III snake be allowed quietly to crawl over
the hand the progressive movement of the ribs
may BIZ easily distinguished, and also If it be
watched while crawling over any raised edge
Gas the back of book requiring the firm appli-
cation of two or three scuta in succession as the
body glides over it. y.
Ii you put snake on a bit of plate glass he
can get no hold with the scuta, and becomes
powerless.
Snakes are often in the habit of climbing trees,
and we see them represented in engrayiDgs, par.
ticulary in old pictorial Bibles, where the ser
pent is seen tempting Adam and Eve, and in
stuffed specimens in museums, as coiing their
bodies round the branches, in corkscrew. like
folds. Now the snake (when alive) aeoer does
this it simply glides up with the whole body
extended in straight line, cliDging by means
of the tips of the expanded ribs, with the scuta
attached, as has been above explained Mr..
Gosse tells US that the black snake in Jamaica
will allow the greatest part of its body to hang
down in the air and thus remain still, while lit
tie more than the tail maintains its position by
clinging straight, not spiray, and not half round
it, but longtudinally along it) to the upper sur
facs OF branch; and it will often pass freely
and gracefully from one branch to another at 9
considerable interval, projecting its head and
body with the utmost ease across the interval.
The motions of snake in q tree are beautifully
easy and free, and convey the impression that
the reptile feels quite at home among the branch
es.-Buckland's 0uriosities Of NaturaI History.
EATING DIRr PRAorIoALLY.-Humbold a
man whose word Justly carries with it European
authority, confirms the statement Of Gumllla,
that the Ottomacs of South America, during the
periods of the floods, subsist entirely on fat and
fersuginous kind of clay, OF which each man
eats daily pound or more. Spix and Martuls
declare that the Indians of the Amazon eat q
kind of loan even when other food is abundant
Molina says the Peruvians frequently eat
sweet smelling clay; and Ehrenberg has analys'
ed the edible clay sold in the markets OF 30
liyis, which he finds to be mixture OF tale and
mica. The inhabitants of Guiana minge clay
with their bread aud the negroes of Jamaics
are said to eat earth when other food is deficient
According to Labillardiere, the inhsbitsnts o
New Caledonia appease their hunger with q
white frisble earth, said by Vauquelin to Dc
composed of magnesia, silica, oxide OF iron ano
chalk. To conclude the list, we must add Siam
Siberia, and Kamsohatka, as countries OF clay
eaters. This is rather staggering aceumala
ton of assertions, which we cannot dismiss al
together even if we suppose, large allowance
of skepticism justifiable. Granting the fact tha
certain kinds of earth are really nutritious, (anc
it is difficult to escape such concluslonD WI
are completely at a loss for an adequste explana
ton of it. Little light is thrown on it by thu
assumption, probable enough, that the eartt
must contain organic matter, because ina pount
of such earth there could scarcely be contained
sufficient organic matter to supply the demands
of an adult. Nor will it get rid of this difficulty
to say that the earth only appeases hunger
without nourishing the system, because in tn
first place, Humboldts testimony is that tht
Ottomacs subsist on the clay at periods wher
other food is deficient; and in the second place
although the local sensation of hunger may b.
appeased by introducing substances into th'
stomach, the more imperous systematic sensa
ton of hunger is not thus to be appeased, w
must, therefore, be content at present with ac
ceptinp the fact which the science OF future
days may possibly explain.-Blackno0d. @
CURIOUS FAors.-The difference in the skull o
domestic hog and wild boar is as great So tha
between the European and negro skull. Do
mesticated animals that have subsequently ruI
wild in the forests, after few generations, lose
all traces of their domestication, and are physi
cally different from their tame originals.
1t is not natural for COW, any more than fol
any other female animals, to give milk when
she has no young to nourish. The permanent
production of milk is modified animal function
produced by an artificial habit for several gen
erations. In Columbia, the practice of milking
COWS having been laid aside, the natural state
of the functions has been restored. The secre'
ton of milk continues only during the sucking
of the calf, and is only an occasional phenome
AL, LIE tha lie dos the milk ceasas to flow