PARENTAL CARE OF THE VIPER. in 



\Ve thus reached home in perfect safety and amity. My brothers and sisters greet- 

 ed the stranger with some little instinctive horror at first, but got over that feeling when 

 they heard of his innocent nature and amusing capabilities, in proof of which I re- 

 peated the necktie experiment, etc. About this stage, however, I must mention that he 

 exhibited a somewhat unpleasant phenomenon common to the Snake tribe in general, who 

 can relieve themselves of the torpor consequent on a heavy meal, by disgorging the 

 same when irritated and requiring restoration of their usual activity. The rejectamenta 

 in this case consisted of portions of unhatched young birds, thus confirming the nest 

 robbery. 



Being thus lightened, and perhaps stimulated by the warmth of a fire in the room, he 

 was now lively enough, unhappily for me, for on essaying to continue my experiments, by 

 tying him into a double knot, his endurance was at an end ; one dart at my finger and a 

 sharp puncture told me that the thing was done. Then, too late, I recollected that the 

 ' Adder is distinguished by a zigzag chain of dark markings down the back,' and sure 

 enough the vile creature before me had those very marks. In a rage, I battered his 

 life out with a stick, lest he should do more damage, and then settled down to watch 

 the progress of the poison within my system. 



It was not slow to take effect ; first the wound looked and felt like a nettle sting, then 

 like a wasp sting, and in the course of a few minutes the whole joint was swollen, with 

 much pain. At this juncture my father, a medical man, arrived from a country journey, 

 and set the approved antidotes to work, ammonia, oil, and lunar caustic, to the wound, 

 having previously made incisions about the punctured spot, and with paternal affection 

 attempted to draw out the poison by suction ; but nothing availed, and all sorts of 

 horrid symptoms set in, fainting, sickness, delirium, and fever ; the hand and whole arm 

 to the shoulder greatly swollen and discolored, with most intense pain. This state 

 of things lasted for several days. I forget the exact time, but I was not fully restored 

 for more than a fortnight after the bite. 



Since that day I have taken care to put my acquaintance with Serpents on such a 

 footing as to be able at a glance to tell the species of any of our three English Snakes ; a 

 piece of useful knowledge most easily gained, and well worth the acquirement." 



It was a most providential circumstance that the reptile did not bite him immediately 

 after its capture, and that the wound was inflicted on the finger and not on the neck, 

 as in the one case he could hardly have reached his home, and in the other, the great 

 swelling might have caused suffocation, as is known to be the case with persons bitten 

 in the neck by other poisonous Serpents. 



A FEW words will not be out of place respecting the alleged capability of the Viper 

 of receiving its progeny into its mouth when in danger. 



A long-standing controversy on this subject has elicited a vast amount of corre- 

 spondence, the whole of which seems to resolve itself into two divisions, namely, 

 communications from a great number of persons who assert that they have seen the 

 young Vipers crawl into their parent's open mouth, and letters from two or three 

 persons who say that they did not do so, because such a proceeding is impossible, and 

 contrary to the laws of nature. 



One of the most learned of the objectors remarks, that no amount of testimony can 

 prevail against reason, and that the persons who assert that they have seen the young 

 Vipers crawl into their mother's mouth, have fallen into the dangerous fallacy of believ- 

 ing what they saw. Now this argument, novel though it may be to the scientific world 

 in general, is perfectly familiar to theologians as being the sheet-anchor of a certain 

 school of controversialists, who deny the credibility of the miraculous events narrated 

 in the Scriptures. It has been repeatedly exploded in polemical controversy, and 

 long abandoned by impartial thinkers, inasmuch as it assumes a knowledge of all the 

 laws of nature, and contracts the power of the Divine Creator of the Universe within 

 the narrow limits of the individual idiosyncracy and mental capacities of the disputant. 



It has ever been conceded that, in all ages, the testimony of credible witnesses has 

 been the surest mode of confuting filse reasoning and thereby eliciting truth ; so that 



