Note 19 — INTRODUCTION.

That the movements of the extremities primarily emanate from the spine is rendered probable by the remarkable powers possessed by serpents. “It is true,” writes Professor Owen (op. cit. p. 261), “that the serpent has no limbs, yet it can outclimb the monkey, outswim the fish, outleap the jerboa, and, suddenly loosing the close coils of its crouching spiral, it can spring into the air and seize the bird upon the wing.” . . . “The serpent has neither hands nor talons, yet it can outwrestle the athlete, and crush the tiger in the embrace of its ponderous overlapping folds.” The peculiar endowments, which accompany the possession of extremities, it appears to me, present themselves in an undeveloped or latent form in the trunk of the reptile.