166 BRITISH SERPENTS. 



1. That there is no adequate reason for its occur- 



rence — i.e., that the young would be safer 

 outside the mother than inside her. 



2. That there is not room for them in the supposed 



retreat. 



3. That they would be killed by suffocation, 



4. That no competent authority has ever dissected 



an adder and found the young in any posi- 

 tion which would prove that they had been 

 swallowed. 



5. That those who believe that they have seen the 



process were deceived by something else tak- 

 ing place. 



These several objections must be carefully examined. 



1. The sivallotviiig process is unnecessary. — Now it is 

 important to carefully distinguish between matters of 

 opinion and matters of fact in evidence. The opinions 

 may be quite as important as a fact, but there can be 

 many opinions while the fact remains. This objec- 

 tion to the swallowing theory is an opinion, a care- 

 fully considered opinion having due weight, that the 

 young adders would be far safer if they each at- 

 tempted to escape on their own account than they 

 would be if the mother swallow^ed them. Those who 

 hold this view are quite entitled to consider it as 

 weighing against the truth of the theory. But it is 

 quite as admissible to hold a different opinion on 

 the safety of the young. It may be said that the 

 question is not so much where the young would be 



