Contributions to the Natural History of the Alligator (Crocodilus Mississippiensis): With a Microscopic Addendum (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from Contributions to the Natural History of the Alligator (Crocodilus Mississippiensis): With a Microscopic Addendum

The aborigines of America, called the Alligator Cayman the Spani ards, Lagarto or lizard; the English, by a corruption of the Spanish, at Lagarto; and finally Alligator. The Nilotic Crocodile appears to havegot its name from two Greek words signifying saffron and fear, literally, saffron-fearer. Hence the Egyptians placed saffron near their bee-hives to drive off the Crocodile. The sovereign power of saffron, says Fuller, is plainly proved by the antipathy of Crocodiles thereunto.

In this paper it is not intended to give the anatomy, physiology, and habits of the Alligator in systematic detail, but to point out some impor tant facts in its history, freed from the trammels of artificial classification, and to correct certain errors, which, for several thousand years, have been accumulating, until the herpetological account of this saurian has, at length, become as fabulous as that of the Griffon itself.

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