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. For these reasons the feet in man
are many-toed, while the separate digits are of no great length. The
toes, finally, are furnished with nails for the same reason as are the
fingers, namely because such projecting parts are weak and therefore
require special protection.
11
We have now done with such sanguineous animals as live on land and
bring forth their young alive; and, having dealt with all their main
kinds, we may pass on to such sanguineous animals as are oviparous. Of
these some have four feet, while others have none. The latter form a
single genus, namely the Serpents; and why these are apodous has
been already explained in the dissertation on Animal Progression.
Irrespective of this absence of feet, serpents resemble the
oviparous quadrupeds in their conformation.
In all these animals there is a head with its component parts; its
presence being determined by the same causes as obtain in the case
of other sanguineous animals; and in all, with the single exception of
the river crocodile, there is a tongue inside the mouth. In this one
exception there would seem to be no actual tongue, but merely a
space left vacant for it. The reason is that a crocodile is in a way a
land-animal and a water-animal combined. In its character of
land-animal it has a space for a tongue; but in its character of
water-animal it is without the tongue itself
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