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 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 matu- 

 rity 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 



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