Mr. Newman felt encouraged by the success attending the publication of White’s _Selborne_, that being one of the first works to induce a practical study of nature. Yet, until the appearance of Bell’s _British Reptiles_ in 1849, our present subject occupied but very stinted space in literature. Indeed, we must admit that as a nation we English have _followed_, not _taken_, the lead as naturalists. So long ago as 1709, Lawson in his _History of Carolina_ lamented the ‘misfortune that most of our Travellers who go to this vast Continent are of the meaner Sort, and generally of very slender Education; hired laborers and merchants to trade among the Indians in remote parts.’ ... ‘The French outstrip us in nice Observations,’ he said. ‘First by their numerous Clergy; their Missionaries being obedient to their Superiors.’ Secondly by gentlemen accompanying these religious missions, sent out to explore and make discoveries and to keep strict journals, which duly were handed over to science. And what Lawson remarked of the American colonies was extended to wherever the French, Portuguese, and Italians established religious communities. We find our book-shelves ever enriched by foreign naturalists. In Germany, also, ophiology was far in advance of us. Lenz, Helmann, Effeldt, and many others pursued the study practically; and produced some valuable results in their printed works, which unfortunately are too little known in England. Doubtless because we in England have so few native reptiles, there is less inducement to concern ourselves about them. Not so in America, where herpetology soon found many enthusiasts; and the researches of Holbrooke, Emmons, De Kay, and Weir Mitchell were published within a few years of each other. Dr. Cantor in India, and Dr. Andrew Smith in South Africa, Drs. Gray and Günther and P. H. Gosse in England, all enriched ophiological literature previous to 1850, to say nothing of the valuable additions to the science dispersed among the _Reports_ and _Transactions_ of the various scientific Societies. After the appearance of Dr. Günther’s important work, _The Reptiles of British India_, in 1864, published under the auspices of the Ray Society, another fresh impetus was observable, and we had Krefft’s _Snakes of Australia_, 1869; _Indian Snakes_, by Dr. E. Nicholson, 1870; culminating in _The Thanatophidia of India_, by Sir Joseph, then Dr. Fayrer, F.R.S., C.S.I., etc., Surgeon-Major of the Bengal Army, in 1872, which brings me to the commencement of my own studies.