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ORDER 2

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Originally appearing in Volume V23, Page 138 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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ORDER 2 . SERPENTES.—CrotalUS (5 See also:species); See also:Boa (Io sp.); Coluber (96 sp.); Anguis (15 Sp.); See also:Amphisbaena (2 sp.); See also:Caecilia (2 sp.). None of the naturalists who under the direction or See also:influence of See also:Linnaeus visited See also:foreign countries possessed any See also:special knowledge of or predilection for the study of See also:reptiles; all, however, contributed to our acquaintance with tropical forms, or transmitted well-preserved specimens to the collections at See also:home, so that See also:Gmelin, in the 13th edition of the Systema Naturae, was able to enumerate three See also:hundred and seventy-one species. The See also:man who, with the See also:advantage of the Linnaean method, first treated of reptiles monographically, was Laurenti. In a small book2 he proposed a new See also:division of these See also:Laurent,. animals, of which some ideas and terms have survived into our times, characterizing the orders, genera and species in a much more precise manner than Linnaeus, giving, for his See also:time, excellent descriptions and figures of the species of his native See also:country. Laurenti might have become for herpetology what See also:Artedi was for See also:ichthyology, but his resources were extremely limited. The circumstance that Chelonians are entirely omitted from his. Synopsis seems due rather to the See also:main See also:object with which he engaged in the study of herpetology, viz. that of examining and distinguishing reptiles reputed to be poisonous, and to want of material, than to his conviction that tortoises should be relegated to another class. He divides the class into three orders: I: SALIENTIA, with the genera Pipa, Bufo, Rana, Hyla, and one species of " See also:Proteus," viz. the larva of Pseudis paredoxa. 2. GRADIENTIA, the three first genera of which are Tailed Batrachians, viz. two species of Proteus (one being the P. anguinus), See also:Triton and Salamandra; followed by true Saurians—Caudiverbera, See also:Gecko, Chamaeleo, See also:Iguana, Basiliscus, See also:Draco, Cordylus, Crocodilus, Scincus, Stellio, Seps. 3.

SERPENTIA, among which he continues to keep Amphisbaena, Caecilia and Anguis, but the large Linnaean genus Coluber is divided into twelve, chiefly from the scutellation of the See also:

head and See also:form of the See also:body. _ The See also:work concludes with an See also:account of the experiments made by Laurenti to prove the poisonous or innocuous nature of those reptiles of which he could obtain living specimens. The next See also:general work on reptiles is by Lacepede. It appeared in the years 1788 and 1790 under the See also:title Histoire naturelle See also:des quadrupedes ovipares et des See also:ser pens (See also:Paris, Lacepede. 2 vols. 4to). Although as regards treatment of details and amount of See also:information this work far surpasses the modest See also:attempt of Laurenti, it shows no advance towards a more natural division and arrangement of the genera. The author depends entirely on conspicuous See also:external characters, and classifies the reptiles into (1) oviparous quadrupeds with a tail, (2) oviparous quadrupeds without a tail, (3) oviparous I In associating tortoises with toads, See also:Ray could not disengage himself from the general popular view as to the nature of these animals, which found expression in the See also:German Schildkrble (" See also:Shield-See also:toad "). 2 Specimen medicum exhibens Synopsin Reptilium emendatam cum experimentis circa venena et antidote Reptilium Austriacorum (See also:Vienna, 1768, 8vo, pp. 214, with 5 plates). bipeds (Chirotes and Pseudo pus), (4) serpents,—an arrangement in which the old confusion of Batrachians and reptiles and the imperfect See also:definition of lizards and See also:snakes are continued, and which it is worthy of remark we find also adopted in See also:Cuvier's Tableau elementaire de l'histoire naturelle des animaux (1798), and nearly so by See also:Latreille in his Histoire naturelle des reptiles (Paris, 18or, 4 vols. 12 mo).

Lacepede's monograph, however, remained for many years deservedly the See also:

standard work on reptiles. The numerous plates with which the work is illustrated, are, for the time, well See also:drawn, and the See also:majority readily recognizable. 3. The See also:Period of Elimination of Batrachians as one of the Reptilian Orders.—A new period for herpetology commences See also:Bronx- with Alex. See also:Brongniart,' who in 1799 first recognized mart. the characters by which Batrachians differ from the other reptiles, and by which they form a natural passage to the class of fishes. Caecilia (as also Langaha and Acrochordus) is See also:left by Brongniart with hesitation in the order of snakes, but newts and salamanders henceforth are no more classed with lizards. He leaves the Batrachians, however, in the class of reptiles, as the See also:fourth order. The first order comprises the Chelonians, the second the Saurians (including crocodiles and lizards), the third the Ophidians—terms which have been adopted by all succeeding naturalists. Here, however, Brongniart's merit on the See also:classification of reptiles ends, the definition and disposition of the genera remaining much the same as in the See also:works of his predecessors. The activity in See also:France in the See also:field of natural See also:science was at this period, in spite of the See also:political disturbances, so See also:great that Daualn. only a few years after Lacepede's work another, almost identical in See also:scope and of the same extent, appeared, viz. the Histoire naturelle generale et particuliere des reptiles of F. M. Daudin (Paris, 1802-3, 8 vols.

8vo). Written and illustrated with less care than that by Lacepede, it is of greater importance to the herpetologists of the See also:

present See also:day, as it contains a considerable number of generic and specific forms described for the first time. Indeed, at the end of the work, the author states that he has examined more than eleven hundred specimens, belonging to five hundred and seventeen species, all of which he has described from nature. The See also:system adopted is that of Brongniart, the genera are well defined, but See also:ill arranged; it is, however, noteworthy that Caecilia takes now its See also:place at the end of the Ophidians, and nearest to the succeeding order of Batrachians. The next step in the development of the herpetological system was the natural arrangement of the genera. This involved a stupendous amount of labour. Although many isolated contributions were made by various workers, this task could be successfully undertaken and completed in the Paris Museum only, in which, besides Seba's and Lacepede's collections, many other herpetological treasures from other museums had been deposited by the victorious generals of the See also:empire, and to which, through Cuvier's reputation, See also:objects from every See also:part of the See also:world were attracted in a voluntary manner. The men who devoted themselves to this task were A. M. C. Dumeril, Dum6r11, See also:Oppel and Cuvier himself. Oppel was a German who, Oppel during his visit to Paris (1807-1808), attended the aad Ca :vier. lectures of Dumeril and Cuvier, and at the same time studied the materials to which See also:access was given to him by the latter in the most liberal manner.

Dumeril 2 maintains that Oppel's ideas and information were entirely derived from his lectures, and that Oppel himself avows this to be the See also:

case. The passage,3 however, to which he refers is somewhat ambiguous, i See also:Bull. Acad. Sci. (1800), Nos. 35, 36. 2 Erpet. gener., i. p. 259. 3 " See also:Ware es nicht See also:die Ermunterung . . . dieser Freunde gewesen, so wiirde ich iiberzeugt von den Mangeln, denen eine solche Arbeit bei See also:alley moglichen Vorsicht doch unterworfen ist, es nie gewagt haben, meine Eintheilung bekannt zu machen, obwohl selbe Herr Dumeril in seinen Lectionen vom Jahre 1809 schon vorgetragen, and die Thiere See also:im See also:Cabinet darnach bezeichnet See also:hat " (See also:preface, p. viii). A few lines further on he emphatically declares that the classification is based upon his own researches.and it is certain that there is the greatest possible difference between the arrangement published by Dumeril in 18o6 (Zoologie Analytique, Paris, 8vo) and that proposed by Oppel in his Ordnungen, Familien, and Gattungen der Reptilien (See also:Munich, 1811. 4to).

There is no doubt that Oppel profited largely by the teaching of Dumeril; but, on the other See also:

hand, there is sufficient See also:internal See also:evidence in the works of both authors, not only that Oppel worked independently, but also that Dumeril and Cuvier owed much to their younger See also:fellow-labourer, as Cuvier himself indeed acknowledges more than once.

End of Article: ORDER 2

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