46 VIPERS, 



become land animals, as I have observed, by keeping them 

 alive for some time, myself." * 



Linnaeus, in his Systema Natures, hints at what Mr Ellis 

 advances more than once. 



Providence has been so indulgent to us as to allow of but 

 one venomous reptile of the serpent kind in these kingdoms, 

 and that is 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 w r ith 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, 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, but once in a year ; or, rather, but 

 only just at one season of the year.-)' Country people talk 

 much of a water snake, but, I am pretty sure, without any 

 reason ; for the common snake (coluber natrix) delights much 



* In an excellent paper on this subject, in the seventeenth numoer of 

 the Edinburgh Philosophical Journal, the metamorphoses of these 

 animals are well described ; from which it would appear, that the 

 aquatic salamander is three years of being capable of reproducing ; that 

 its first change from the egg is to the tadpole state, and that it undergoes 

 several changes in progressing to maturity. ED. 



f All the snake tribe eat only periodically, but it is a mistake to suppose 

 they feed but once a year, or at a particular time of the year. After 

 having gorged their prey, they are overcome by a sleepy torpor, and remain 

 for days, and sometimes even weeks, in this state, when they again become 

 lively, and crawl abroad in quest of prey. Most of the tribe, like nearly 

 the whole amphibia, cast their skins periodically. ED. 



