iorly to all other teeth, which they exceed by
five or six times in point of size. Situated just within the lips,
recurved, slender, and exceeding in keenness even the finest of
cambric needles, they are penetrated in their longitudinal diameter by
a delicate, hair-like canal opening into a groove at the apex,
terminating on the anterior surface in an elongated fissure. As the
canal is straight, and the tooth falciform, a like groove or
longitudinal fissure is formed at the base, where it is inclosed by
the aperture of the duct that communicates with the poison apparatus.

At the base of each fang, and extending from a point just beneath the
nostril, backward two-thirds the distance to the commissure of the
mouth, is the poison gland, analogous to the salivary glands of man,
that secretes a pure, mucous saliva, and also a pale straw-colored,
half-oleaginous fluid, the venom proper. Within the gland, venom and
saliva are mingled in varying proportions coincidently with
circumstances; but the former slowly distills away and finds lodgment
in the central portion of the excretory duct, that along its middle is
dilated to form a bulb-like receptacle, and where only it may be
obtained in perfect purity.

When the reptile is passive, the fangs are arranged to lie backward
along the jaw, concealed by the membrane of the mouth, and thus offer
no impediment to deglutition. Close inspection, however, at once
reveals not only their presence, but also several rudimentary ones to
supply their place in case of injury or accident. The bulb of the
duct, too, is surrounded by a double aponeurotic capsule, of which the
outermost and strongest layer is in connection with a muscle by whose
action both duct and gland are compressed at will, conveying the
secretion into the basal aperture of the fang, at the same time
refilling the bulb.

When enraged and assuming the offensive and defensive, the reptile
draws the posterior portion of its body into a coil or spiral, whereby
the act of straightening, in which it hurls itself forward to nearly
its full length, lends force to the blow, and at the same instant the
fangs are erected, drawn forward in a reverse plane, permitting the
points to look outward beyond the lips. The action of the compressor
muscles is contemporaneous with the blow inflicted, the venom being
injected with considerable violence through the apical outlets of the
fangs, and into the bottom of the wound. If the object is no