102 APRIL 



difficult to reconcile with the action of the gastric 

 juice. 



Dr. George Harley has come nearest to an authori- 

 tative pronouncement on the puzzle. In a letter to 

 the Field, March 9, 1895, he described how he 

 dissected on the spot a viper which had been seen to 

 admit its young into its mouth, and had been killed 

 immediately. He found the young in the body of 

 the parent, sure enough, but neither in the stomach 

 nor in the oviduct. It was not till he was dissecting 

 a puff-adder in 1863 that he discovered a sac, 

 situated under the lungs, but nearer the tail, into 

 which he concluded the young might be received 

 and supplied with the air necessary for their exist- 

 ence, thus forming a provision somewhat analogous 

 to the pouch in marsupials. There are only two 

 unsatisfactory points about this statement by a man 

 of science ; unfortunately, they are destructive of its 

 value. The first is that the dissection took place 

 thirty-eight years ago in 1837 ; the second, that 

 the viper was thrown away after dissection. 



It is ever thus with these wonderful stories. 

 They are not a bit more surprising than many facts 

 perfectly capable of demonstration; the extraordinary 

 part about them is that they refuse persistently to 



