Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XIV.djvu/804

 778 SERPENT SERRANO omons; the first, like the cobra, rattlesnake, and viper, have movable fangs in the upper jaw communicating with a poison gland. All feed- on living prey, which is swallowed whole ; while some are rapid in pursuit, others crush their victims to death, or poison them, or bring them within reach of their jaws by a kind of fascination, terrifying by their hideous and menacing aspect some of the active and small- er mammals and birds into a momentary -loss of power. They eat and drink rarely, and are capable of sustaining very long fasts ; digestion is performed very slowly ; the secretion of the large salivary glands is profuse. For details on the poison apparatus see COBRA DE CAPEL- LO, RATTLESNAKE, and VIPER. The stomach is little more than a prolongation of the oesoph- agus, and the intestines are very short; the heart is in a fibrous pericardium, and consists of two auricles, and one ventricle with two unequal apartments communicating with each other ; hence a mixed arterial and venous blood is sent over the system ; the growth ia slow, and the life prolonged ; the hissing at- tributed to serpents is a faint sound produced by the slow escape of air through the mouth or nostrils during expiration, and only ex- ceptionally would be noticeable by an indif- ferent observer ; the animal heat is low. The males are smaller, more slender, brighter, and more active than the females ; no nest is made, there is no incubation (except in the python) by the heat of the body, no food is stored up for the young, and no education nor paren- tal care is necessary. The mother hides the eggs in a suitable place, and leaves them to bo hatched by the heat of the sun and air ; sometimes the young are brought to maturity in the mother's body, as in the vipers. There are about 1,000 described species, widely dis- tributed over the world, especially in the warm- er regions ; doubtless many varieties from age, sex, and climate have been described as spe- cies. Fossil remains of serpents have been found in all the divisions of the tertiary age ; pal&ophis (Owen), attaining a length of 20 ft., has been found in the eocene of England, showing a higher temperature than now exists in N. Europe; many more species, probably belonging near the genus coluber (Linn.) if not in it, are met with in the middle and upper tertiary and the diluvium of Europe. Prof. Marsh describes in the " American Journal of Science " (1870) the dinophis grandis from the New Jersey tertiary greensand, a verte- bra of which indicated an animal 80 ft. long, allied to the present marine boas. Almost all the species older than the post-pliocene are related to the constrictors. He draws atten- tion to the fact of the occurrence of closely related large serpents in the same geological formations in Europe and in this country, just after the disappearance of the snake-like mo- sasaurus and its allies, interesting in view of the probable derivation of the serpents. Oth- er large species have since been described in the same journal. For interesting information on serpents, see Broderip's " Note Book of a Naturalist," part 13, and F. Buckland's " Cu- riosities of Natural History " (London, 1859). SKRI'EXTIXE. See MARBLE, vol. xi., p. 147. SERRANO, Frandsco, duke de la Torre, a Span- ish statesman, born at San Fernando, near Ca- diz, in 1810. He entered the army when still a boy, and took part in the war against the Carlists. In 1848, during the contest between the partisans of Maria Christina and Espartero, he espoused the interests of the former, and was one of the juuta of Barcelona which de- clared the majority of Queen Isabella and deposed Espartero. After the restoration of Maria Christina he joined Narvaez in over- throwing the ministry of Olozaga. In 1846 his extraordinary influence over the queen, whose lover he was, led to dissensions be- tween her and her husband, and caused much scandal ; and the ministry of Sotomayor at- tempted to remove him from court, but was overthrown by him. The Pacheco-Salamauca ministry, which ho supported, fell before pub- lic opposition ; and Serrano then, as an offset to the rising favor of Narvaez, caused the re- call of O16zaga and Espartero. On the advent of Narvaez to power in 1849, Serrano was made captain general of Granada ; and he after- ward vigorously opposed in the senate the min- istries which rapidly succeeded each other. In February, 1854, he was implicated in an insur- rectionary movement at Saragossa, and exiled, but was restored by the revolution of July, and joined the " liberal union " which supported the coalition of Espartero and O'Donnell ; and when they separated, Serrano declared for the latter. He had been made in 1854 captain general of artillery, which office he exchanged some time later for that of captain general of New Castile. Madrid being thus under his control at the time of O'Donnell's coup d'etat in July, 1856, he suppressed the insurrection in the Prado and the Retiro, and soon after- ward superseded O16zaga as ambassador to Paris, but was recalled on the fall of O'Don- nell in October. On his return he joined in the senate the opposition which led to the downfall of Narvaez in November, 1857. In 1860 he was appointed captain general of Cuba, and was succeeded by Dulce, Dec. 11, 1862. On his return to Spain he was created duke de la Torre for his services in the rean- nexation of Santo Domingo to Spain in 1861. In June, 1865, he was made captain general of Madrid. On the return of Narvaez to power in 1866, Serrano as president of the senate, with Rios Rosas, president of the deputies, pre- sented a protest against the prorogation of the cortes, and in consequence was imprisoned for a short time at Alicante. In the revolution of 1868 he took a prominent part. With other generals he had been exiled to the Canary islands in July, but the revolutionists sent a vessel for them, and they landed on Sept. 19 at Cadiz. At the head of the insurgents Serrano