12 



WHITE OF SELBORNE ON THE VIPER. 



parous, they are viviparous also, 

 hatching their young within their 

 bellies, and then bringing them 

 forth"; perhaps drawing his con- 

 clusion from the phenomenon men- 

 tioned, and absolutely ignoring the 

 testimony of people who had seen 

 vipers swallow their young. It 

 would be a curiosity in nature to 

 find an animal that hatched an un- 

 laid egg inside of itself ; so great a 

 curiosity as at once to be rejected 

 unless it could be supported by evi- 

 dence. Assuming, however, that 

 the viper did it, we could under- 

 stand how each of the young was 

 nourished when inside of its own 

 egg ; but howwould they be fed, or 

 eveji kept alive, after leaving the 

 eggs and entering and perhaps run- 

 ning about the abdomen at large? 

 And why should snakes at least 

 seven inches long, emerging from 

 eggs one-seventh that length, be 

 found unborn when they proved 

 themselves so knowing on being 

 forced to the light of day ? Do un- 

 born animals of any kind act in that 

 way ? And how did eggs that would 

 yield snakes four-and-a-half or five 

 inches long when hatched, produce 

 ones from two-and-a-half to three 

 inches longer before being born ? 

 And if they were born inside, what 

 had become of the shells or rather 

 coverings of the eggs ? If they had 

 been voided, why should not the 

 young which they contained have 

 followed in the same direction, and 

 at the same time? White, by his 

 own admission, knew little or noth- 

 ing of the matter, and paid no re- 

 gard to what others testified to of 

 their own knowledge as to the swal- 

 lowing of the young. He had most 

 probably seen the snake that con- 

 tained the eggs and killed the one 

 himself containing the young, and 

 concluded that therefore these young 

 must have been hatched inside.* 



* It is surprising that White should 

 have commented on this subject so 

 superficially and unsatisfactorily, after 

 contemplating the eggs and the young 



It must therefore be held that the 

 viper, like all animals producing 

 eggs, is really an oviparous one, 

 bringing forth her young like other 

 serpents of her kind that is, lays 

 eggs to be hatched by the elements, 

 and discharges her maternal duties 

 like them by taking them inside of 

 her on occasions, unless it can be 

 proved otherwise by evidence that 

 cannot be controverted. I of course 

 mean when the animal is in her nat- 

 ural state and not in captivity, 

 which would probably somewhat 

 modify her instincts and habits. 

 How could it be known that the 

 eggs of vipers are hatched inside 

 unless noticed at the time of birth, 

 when the young and the substance 

 that covered them emerged to- 

 gether, or the one (and which one ?) 

 before the other, and in the same 

 direction? And how could it be 

 learned that the eggs increase in 

 maturity inside unless various vi- 

 pers containing eggs are killed dur- 

 ing the season, and a comparison be 

 made as to their respective con- 

 ditions? We would have then to 

 ascertain where the bursting of the 

 egg takes place that is, inside or 

 outside of the animal. If it takes 

 place outside, no matter how shortly 

 after the egg is laid, then is the vi- 

 per an oviparous animal; and in 

 that case how could we find vipers 

 inside like those described by White, 

 and as can be found any summer in 

 England? Let a viper containing 

 young, as described by White, be 

 killed and submitted to properly 

 qualified scientific men for inspec- 

 tion, and they would doubtless soon 

 settle the question whether the 

 young were unborn or had entered 

 the mother by the mouth. If they 

 found the young and the coverings 

 of the eggs, they could say that 

 they had been hatched inside ; but 

 if they found the young only, how 



as being inside of the mother. This 

 circumstance goes a very long way to 

 prove that he was not a scientific natu- 

 ralist. 



