NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 53 
the viper. As you propose the good of mankind to be an object 
of your publications, you will not omit to mention common salad 
oil as a sovereign remedy against the bite of the viper. As to the 
blind worm (Axguzs fragilis, so called because it snaps in sunder 
with a small blow), I have found, on examination, that it is perfectly 
innocuous. A neighbouring yeoman (to whom I am indebted for 
some good hints) killed and opened a female viper about the 27th 
of May: he found her filled with a chain of eleven eggs, about the 
size of those of a blackbird; but none of them were advanced so 
far towards a state of maturity as to contain any rudiments of 
young. Though they are oviparous, yet they are viviparous also, 
BLIND WORM. 
hatching their young within their bellies, and then bringing them 
forth. Whereas snakes lay chains of eggs every summer in my 
melon beds, in spite of all that my people can do to prevent them ; 
which eggs do not hatch till the spring following, as I have often 
experienced. Several intelligent folks assure me that they have 
seen the viper open her mouth, and admit her helpless young down 
her throat on sudden surprises, just as the female opossum does her 
brood into the pouch under her belly, upon the like emergencies ; 
and yet the London viper-catchers insist on it, to Mr. Barrington, 
that no such thing ever happens.* The serpent kind eat, I believe, 
* This question remains, we believe, nearly as it did in White’s time. There have been 
statements upon both sides, and some time since it gave rise to a very long discussion in 
the ‘‘ Gardener’s Chronicle,” but which, with the others, ended in nothing that could be 
taken as undoubted proof of the fact. We have always looked upon this as a popular 
delusion, and the supposed habit is so much at variance with what we know of the general 
manners and instincts of animals that, without «doubted proof of its occurrence, we 
incline still to consider it as such. Something always occurs to prevent the adder that 
has swallowed her young being captured, and the evidence rests on such an one having 
seen the young enter the mouth of the parent. Now, we do not mean to call in question 
the veracity of the observers reporting what they at the time believed to be the case, but 
we know how easy it is to be deceived, and how difficult it is to observe correctly. Mr. 
