NATURAL HISTORY 
count of the mud inguma, an amphibious bipes from South Carolina, 
that the water-eft, or newt, is only the larva of the land-eft, as 
tadpoles are of frogs. Left I fliould be fufpedVed to mifunder- 
ftand his meaning, I fhall give it in his own words. Speaking of 
the opercula or coverings to the gills of the mud inguana, he pro- 
ceeds to fay that " The form of thefe pennated coverings 
*' approach very near to what 1 have fome time ago obferved in 
*' the larva or aquatic flate of our Englijh lacerta, known by the 
name of eft, or newt ; which ferve them for coverings to their 
*' gills, and for fins to fwim with while in this ftate ; and which 
*' they lofc, as well as the fins of their tails, when th&j change their 
ftate and become land animals, as I have obferved, by keeping 
them alive for fome time myfelf." 
Linna-us, in his Svjicma Naturae, hints at what Mr. Ellis advances 
more than once. 
Providence has been fo indulgent to us as to allow of but one 
venomous reptile of the ferpent kind in thefe kingdoms, and that 
is the viper. As you propofe the good of mankind to be an obje6t 
of your publications, you will not omit to mention common fallad- 
oil as a fovereign remedy againft the bite of the viper. As to the 
blind worm (anguis fragilis, fo called becaufe it fnaps in funder 
with a fmall blow), 1 have found, on examination, that it is per- 
fcftly innocuous. A neighbouring yeoman (to whom I am 
indebted for fome good hints) killed and opened a female viper 
about the twenty-feventh of May r he found her filled with a chain 
of eleven eggs, about the fize of thofe of a blackbird ; but none 
of them were advanced fo far towards a ftate of maturity as to 
contain any rudiments of young. Though they are oviparous, 
yet they are viviparous alfo, hatching their young within their 
bellies J and then bringing them forth. Whereas fnakes lay 
chains 
