Abstract
When the poisonous fangs of serpents are attentively examined, a slit or suture may be observed extending along the convex side, from the foramen at the base to the aperture near the point. (Plate XXII. A. B. C. D.) This is a consequence of an unusual, and hitherto, I believe, entirely unnoticed structure, resulting from the mode of formation of the tube through which the poison flows. My attention was called to this structure, by having lately received from my friend Mr. Herbert Ryder, the assay master to the mint at Madras, the bones of the skull of a cobra de capello. I had some years since noticed the slit running along the convex side of the fang, in making a preparation of the head of the common viper of this country, in which it is distinctly seen when magnified; nevertheless, it seems to have been overlooked by all the numerous authors who have written upon the subject of the venomous fangs of the viper, and who, as far as structure is concerned, do not appear to have advanced beyond Pliny, to whom, and even anterior to whose time, the circumstance of their being tubular was well known.
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