NATURAL IIJS TORY OF SELBOkNE. 



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 (Anguis 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 undoubted 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. 



