166 BRITISH SERPENTS. 
H 
. That there is no adequate reason for 1ts occur- 
rence—ic., that the young would be safer 
outside the mother than inside her. 
2. That there is not room for them in the supposed 
retreat. 
3. That they would be killed by suffocation. 
+. That no competent authority has ever dissected 
an adder and found the young in any  posi- 
tion which would prove that they had been 
swallowed. 
ot 
That those who believe that they have seen the 
process were deceived by something else tak- 
ing place. 
These several objections must be carefully examined. 
1. The swallowing process 1s unnecessary.—Now it is 
important to caretully distinguish between matters of 
opinion and matters of fact in evidence. The opinions 
may be quite as important as a fact, but there can be 
many opinions while the fact remains. This objec- 
tion to the swallowing theory is an opinion, a ecare- 
fully considered opinion having due weight, that the 
young adders would be far safer if they each at- 
tempted to escape on their own account than they 
would be if the mother swallowed them. Those who 
hold this view are quite entitled to consider it as 
weighing against the truth of the theory. But it is 
quite as admissible to hold a different opinion on 
the safety of the youne. It may be said that the 
question is not so much where the young would be 
