It only remains to say that when two heads have really appeared—and there are several such cases on record—they are simply monstrosities, malformations, as found in other animals occasionally. An example of this kind may be seen at the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons. Another was described by Frank Buckland in Land and Water, April 1872. It was sent to him by his friend Dr. Bowerbank of St. Leonard’s.
A curious jumble of the Amphisbæna and the Cobra, with its elevated and expanded neck, is found in the Philosophical Transactions, vol. iii. p. 863, for 1665. There had been a correspondence on the subject of two heads, and a reader was evidently sceptical, for the writer thus protests that he is telling the truth:—
‘There are indeed such Serpents in these Parts (Java Naja) which have an Head on each End of their Body, called Capra capella. They are esteemed Sacred by these People, and fortunate to those in whose House and Lands they are found; but pernicious to whomsoever doth them Harm.’
This credulous gentleman writes from the East, and cannot corroborate what he has been told by a personal acquaintance with even an Amphisbæna, which might really deceive a casual observer. But that the belief prevailed extensively prior to this, we find from a distinguished physician of his day, F. Hermandez, or Fernandez, who, in his work, Animalium Mexicanum, 1628, represents a creature that would fill one of these pages, with two heads like a ram with wattles and other ample appendages, and distinguishes it as Amphisbæna Europæa.
Amphisbæna Europæa.
‘It is not for us to question the Ancients,’ says the much too modest author, betraying a lurking misgiving as to the reality of the creature, but nevertheless doing his best to represent it as his imagination depicts it. It is here much reduced in size, but may be found on p. 797 of the above very interesting volume.
Sir Thomas Browne includes this among his ‘Vulgar Errours,’ and traces it to Nicander, Galen, and other classic writers, but to ‘Ælian most confidently.’ He discusses the creature with dispassionate intelligence, and shows us that ‘poets have been more reasonable than philosophers’ about it.[62] Again, if such a thing there were, it were not to be obtruded by the name of Amphisbæna, or as an animal of one denomination, with a duplicity of hearts and heads,’ he argues, giving honour to the head, and therefore that the creature must be dual.
There are frequently some of the smooth, ruler-like snakes in our London Reptilium; their very small eyes and mouth, and blunt, shapeless head, render it difficult to decide at the moment between head and tail. Any with sheep’s heads we are not likely to see, and those that have had the malformation of two reptilian heads generally present something of two necks as well. The writers, however, whom we have quoted were not thinking of monstrosities, but had profound faith in a veritable Amphisbæna Europæa, which an artist with an unscientific imagination has handed down to posterity!