Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 18.djvu/321

* SMYTH. 273 SNAKE. tenant in the Sixteenth regiment of Maine volun- teers, which saw active service in Grant's Vir- ginia campaigns. After the close of the war he studied theology at the Andox'er Theological Seminary, graduated there in ISli?, and tilled pastorates in Bangor, Me., and Qiiiney. 111., until 1882, when he was called to the pulpit of the First Congregational Church in Xew Haven, Conn. His publications include: The Religious Feeling: A Htiidy fo-r Faith (1877) ; Old Faiths in New Lights (1879); The Orthodox Theology of To-Day 1881) ; The Realitij of Faith ( 18S4) ; Christian Facts and Forces^ (1887): (^'hristiun Ethics (1892) ; and The Place of Death in Evo- lution (1897). SMYTH, ViLLi.M Henry (1788-1805). An English naval olHcer, the son of an American loyalist. He was born in Westminster; entered the English nav^' from the merchant marine in 1804 ; saw much active service ; and became a lieutenant in 1813 and a conunander in 1815. During the next nine years he was engaged in making a survey of the Italian, Sicilian, Greek, and North African coasts, and constructed charts that form the basis of those still in use. He was one of the founders of the Royal Geographi- cal Society, of which he was president in 1849- 50, and was president of the Roj'al Astronomical Society in 1845-46. He attained the rank of admiral in 18G3. Among his works are: .l/emoir . . . of the Resources, Inhahitants. and Hy- drography of f^icily and Its Islands (1824) ; The Cycle of Celestial Objects for the Use of. . . Naval, Military, and Private Asitronomers (2 vols., 1844) ; and The mediterranean: A Memoir, ■Eistorical and Nautical (1854). SNAIL (AS. snwgel. Hessian Ger. Hchnegel, OHG. snecko, Ger. Sehnecke, snail; connected with AS. snacu, Icel. snukr, sniikr, Eng. snake, from AS. snican, to creep, Eng. sneak, and ulti- mately with Skt. nuga, snake). The name applied to many gastropod mollusks, but more especially to the terrestrial air-breathing gastropods (Pul- monata) and to the fresh-water gastropods such as the pond-snails (Physa, Limniea, etc.). The Pulmonata are gastropods with two pairs of ten- tacles, the nervous ganglia concentrated around the oesophagus, and fitted to breathe air through a pallial cavity formed by the union of the front edge of the mantle with the neck region. The spiral shell is either well developed, or in the slugs either vestigial or absent. The eyes are cither at the base of the tentacles or situated at the end of the larger pair. Snails are mostly plant-eaters or live on dead leaves, cutting their food by means of the long slender rasp-like rad- ula or 'lingual ribbon.' The eggs of the common Physa (q.v.) are laid in the early spring and three or four weeks later from fifty to sixty embryos with well-formed shells may be found in the capsule. After passing through the moru- la, gastrula, and troehosphere stages a definite veliger stage is finally attained. Soon the definite molluscan characters are assumed, the shell, creeping foot, eyes, and tentacles appearing, and the snail hatches in about twenty days after development begins. The range of form and type of coloration is shown on the accompanying Plate. Use as Food. In Southern Europe and France snails are everywhere eaten, and snail-gardens (cscargotiferes) still exist in France, also at Brunswick, Ulm. in Germany, and at Copen- hagen. The markets at Paris, Marseilles, Bordeau, Toulouse, Nantes, and also those of Algiers, are ohiclly supplied by snails gathered from the open country, and especially from the vineyards, where the "edible snail' {Helix pomutia) abounds. When snails are eaten directly after being collected they may, from having fed on some poisonous matters, prove harmful. They should be fed in gardens previous to being eaten. Consult: Bin- ney. Terrestrial Mollasks of the United States (Boston, 1851); IngersoU, '"In a Snailery," in M'ild Life of Orchard and Field (New York, 1902). SNAKE (AS. snacu, Oleel. snakr, snokr, snake, from AS. snican. to creep, Eng. sneak; ultimately connected with Skt. naga, snake), or Serpent. A reptile representing the highly specialized saurian order Ophidia. Snakes ditfer from their nearest relatives the lizard, primarily in having the two halves of the lower jaw con- nected by an elastic band. They agree with them in many particulars, and the external resem- blance is so close in some cases that the true relationships were long confused. Although snakes as a whole form an ascending series, de- generacy has played an important part in their phylogenetic history. This degeneracy consists mainly in the reduction of the mechanism for rapid movement, the shortening of the tail, and the decrease in the size of the eye and mouth. The most highly developed are those with a poison apparatus, and among these the rattle- snakes seem most advanced. The form is greatly elongated and ordinarily cylindrical, but in the sea-snakes (q.v.) is likely to l)e laterally com- pressed in adaptation to an aquatic life. The body is clqj;hed in scales ( q.v. ), which are folds in the skin, lacking osteoderms and covered with a horny epidermis. Ordinarily they overlap, like tiles on a roof, but sometimes are flat and edge to edge, like tiles in a floor. They are small on the back and sides, lie in a definite number of equilateral longitudinal rows, and frequently are ridged or 'keeled;' but on the ventral surface (except in the burrowers and sea-snakes) are so large as to reach from side to side, forming 'ab- dominal scutes' (gastroleges in front of cloaca and wrosteges behind ), each attached at both ends to a pair of ribs. The scales are often enlarged on the head into plates or shields. (See illustration.) The arrangement and shape of both the head- plates and the gastrosteges are of great service in classification. In some the nasal plates are broad- KEY TO PLATE OP NORTH AMERICAN SNAILS. 1. Helix Pennsjlvaniciis: 2, Helix spinosa fside vifw): 3. Glandina decussata: 4. Helix glaphyra; 5. Helix Nickliniana ; 6. Helix clausa: 7. Helix fiilip-inosa; 8. Helix Vancouverensis : 9. Helix Hpinosa (showinpr aperture: compare Fip:. 5): 10. Helix hirsuta: 11. Helix Californiensis; 12, Helix nmltilineata ; 13, Helix appresea: 14. Helix Columbiana : 15. Helix auriculata: IB, Helix palliata: 17, Helix profunda; 18, Helix elevata : 19, Helix thyrnideus ; 20, Helix subplana: 21. Helix auriculata (varietal form of FiR. 16) ; 22. Helix alternata (spire): 23. Helix alternata (aperture): 24, Bulimua dealbatua; 25, (Ilandina truncata (flniall form): 26. Glandina truncata (t.vpical lar^e form): 27. Bulimua fasciatus : 28. rjlandina truncata (Key West variety): 29, Helix Townsendiana : 30, Anipullaria depressa : 31, Helix indentata : .32. Helix tudicu- lata : 33, Helix plieata : 34, Valvata trieariaata: 35, Helix gularis : 36, Helix aspersa (fipire) : 37. Helixal bolabris ; 38, Helix aapersa (aperture).