The Encyclopaedia Britannica; A Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, and General Literature Volume 20 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1888 Excerpt: ...the class, as well as from his imperfect treatment of tho species. His knowledge of Reptiles is chiefly derived from the researches of others, from whose accounts, however, everything not based upon reliable demonstration is critically excluded. He begins with a chapter treating of Frogs (Sana, with two species), Toads (Bufo, with one Bpecies), and Tortoises1 1 In associating Tortoises with Toads Bay conld not disengage himself from tho general popular view as to the naturo of these animals, which found expression in the German SchildkrBte (" Shield-toad "). xx.--ss (Testudo, with fourteen species). Tho second group comprises the Lacerlse, twenty-five in number, and includes the Salamander and Newts; and the third tho Serpentes, nine species, among which tho Limbless Lizards are enumerated. Except in so far as he made known and briefly characterized a number of Reptiles, our knowledge of this class was not advanced by I.ixx.j;r.. His notions as to the relation of the various types among themselves and to the other vertebrates were the some as those of Bay, and the progress made by herpetology in the various editions of the Syslema Naturse is therefore of a merely formal character. That Linnaius associated in the 12th edition cartilaginous and other Fishes with the Reptiles nnder the name of Amphibia Nantes was the result of some misunderstanding of an observation by Garden, and is not to be taken as a premonitory token of the recent discoveries of the relation between Batrochians and Fishes. Linnaeus places Beptiles, which he colls Amphibia, as the third class of the animal kingdom; he divides tho genera thus: --Order 1. Reptiles.--Testudo (15 species); limn (17 sp.); Draco (2 sp.); Lacerta (48 sp., including 6 Batrachians). Ordrr 2. Serpentes...