The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-01-07
SNAKES USED TO WALK.
Rudlmentary Legs Found on Species
Of the Ophidian.

! OF Locomotion Which Prof. Lucas,
of the Smithsonian, Says We're
Ages Ago Possessed by the
Crawling Branch Of the Animal
NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. of the Sea
Serpent.
From the Washington Post
The good housewives of New England,
and, perhaps, in other parts of the coun-
try are won't TO meet the questions of in
| duisitye youngsters with the exclama-
ton: "Oh snakes footl" an expression.
| like "hen's teeth" and "side hill
badger" denoting the impossibiity of
thing. The snakes foot, however, is
| something more than a nonentity and the
story Of the serpent in the garden of
Eden that was doomed forever to crawl
upon his belly, is only partly, if it is at
all true
This was proved to a representative Of
/ The Post the other day who called at the
! Smithsonian Institution. The wise men
| there who are skilled in anatomy of ami
mails have recently received the body of a
| big python that sickened and died in New
! York. His notified hide was drying in
the sun at the time in sequestered spot
| between the Smithsonian building and
the wooden shed where the taxidermists
have their workshops. 1t is an uncanny
| place and the man who chances to glance
carcass of an ourang outang to that of
buffalo. Professor +. A. Lucas, who had
the remains of the twenty-foot snake from
the eastsin charge, was asked if snakes
had feet,
"Oh yes" said he, and he took. down
the skeleton Of the python, which had
been stripped of all the flesh so that the
framework of bones fastened with carti-
lage remained as perfect as life 1t was
coiled up like bunch of rope and as light
as kite. 1t was surprising to know how
frail a structure of bone could make
very supple snake, able to give an ele-
plant hard tussle.
THE PYTHON HAD LEGS AND FEET
eyes" said Prof. Lucas again, SNAKES
have feet, and the best example among
living species is the python" He pointed
to the skeleton of the python which he
held In his hand, and showed two long
ribs on each side of the body well back
toward the tail. Those are the remains
of the snakes feet and legs. Like the
vermiform appendix in man, the snake
has no earthly use for them now and can
get along quite as we'll as he is. All the
big snakes have these remains of former
feet, especially the boa constructors and
the anacondas Prof. Lucas says that the
bones of the legs, which have withered
and shortened in the ages during which
big snakes have enjoyed existence, are
lOuLu III oOLltG oALldAl 5pbtlB5 OF SNAKES IN
this country, although it is not common.
The best known species is the glass snake
of Florida, of which. so much has been
said.
IL is popularity supposed that these
snakes fly to pieces when they are touched
and that the pieces crawl off into the
bushes and grow together again. The
last part of the story is not true, but they
do fly to pieces when touched, and it is
very difficult for the scientists to obtain
good specimen on this account. There are
certain lizards in the same way whose
tails come off as soon as they are taken by
collectors. The glass snake has embryonic
feet, which result from the time when its
ancestors were snakes that walked on
legs. In addition to the feet, the scientists
also find remains of shoulder girdles, so
that there is no doubt about the former
locomotive powers of the ophidian crea-
ton.
HAD NO USE FOR THEM.
The time required for the snakes to
lose the use of their means pro-
vided for ambulation inconceivable and
the scientist or any other sane man
would not attempt to compute it. Prof.
l.. Steineger, of the National Museum,
who has had great deal of experience
with snakes, especially i'll the study of
the venom OF poisonous ones, says that
they lost their legs and began to crawl
because they had no use for them. They
undoubtedly lived, he says, for long
period Of time in the ground, where legs
would only be nuisance, and this would
be sufficient from the point of view of a
scientist to cause them TO fall into innoc-
uous desuetude in the course of long
centuries. Many snakes now burrow in
| the ground, and probably these are ling
| ering representatives of the whole of the
| former tribe
10 ,AN r1st ~ kt.aA
of former snake locomotion which are
now found in the python and other snakes
are the remains of fms 1t is not impos-
| Slble that the snake swan before he took
| to the land.> There are many things to
lead one to take this view. All snakes
can swim, and one noted poet who ad-
| mired the mechanism of the lower order
of reptiles, which is, in fact, the most in
genious of that of all animals, has sung
of the snakes that run without feet and
swim without hands
MISSING LINKS IN sNAKoLoGY.
There was a monster of old that fire.
! quented the waters of prehistoric seas
when the world was young, that was
! probably the ancestor of the present
snake He was called the plesiosaurus,
and acquired monstrous dimensions. Pop
ular biologists like to picture battles in
| the seas where the water was made red
with the blood of these monsters and 9TH
ers of their tribe. Their sole surviving
! descendants are the half mythical sea
serpents. They had fins and the rudi-
ments now found may be the remains of
these. When the reptiles came to the
land to live and learned, for some reason
unknown, to burrow in the sand, they
would undoubtedly lose these. There are
missing links, however, in the line of de-
scent Of the snake, and all the scientists
/ tell about reptillan genealogy is partly
matter of conjecture.
| OF the many snakes that live in the
water nowadays the major part are rapid
! swimmers and are deadly to handle. Prof.
Lucas mentioned one called the platurus,
on account Of its big, fiat tail, which
! swims in tropical waters. He says it is
accounted great sport TO catch it with
hook and line, but the danger comes when
the catch is hauled in, ana the average
man is very shy of that kind of fishing, as
one bite means death right speedily and
| in the most agoniZing form.
There is still another explanation of the
rudimentary foot of modern times in the
| snake world, and that is that it is the re-
mains of flying dragon. There were I'M
| doubtedly dragons in the times of old,
and when the dragons ceased to fly and
came TO the earth TO drag out an existence,
| il is not improbable that some of them
survived as snakes, and that the rem