i88 3 .] 
Do Snakes Swallow their Young ? 
473 
VI. DO SNAKES SWALLOW THEIR YOUNG? 
By James Simson. 
yh Science ” to learn of the origin of the paper on the 
^ question “ Do Snakes swallow their Young ? ” which 
was read before the American Association for the Advance- 
ment of Science, in August, 1873, by Prof. G. Brown Goode, 
and substantially copied by Miss Hopley in her book on 
Snakes. In “ Land and Water ” of December 7th, 1872, 
and January nth, 1873, I had two letters on the subject, 
which made, in “ Contributions to Natural History,” ten 
large double-column pages of small type, closely printed, — 
a great deal more matter than is to be found in Mr. Goode's 
paper. In the last of these letters I said : — 
“All over America young people are often killing snakes, 
some of them pregnant with young and some with eggs, and 
sometimes the same species pregnant with both, but not, of 
course, at the same time, which, as well as swallowing of 
the young, cause them no small astonishment ; and there 
the matter rests. But older and more intelligent people 
understand the phenomenon of the animal laying eggs to be 
hatched in the soil, and then taking the young inside of her 
for their protection ; and they often express their surprise 
that this peculiarity of the serpent tribe is not described, or 
hardly recorded, in the pages of natural history.” — (P. 16.) 
At the very beginning of my first letter I said : — 
“ Has anyone, in dissecting a female viper, found eggs 
within her ? and has anyone found young ones inside of 
another ? If both have been found, then, as a matter of 
course, the reptile must have swallowed her progeny.”-— 
(P.7.) ^ 
Mr. Goode read these letters in “ Land and Water,” and 
immediately afterwards (on February 1st) inserted a notice 
in the “ American Agriculturist,” having a large circulation 
in the United States, soliciting information on the subjedl 
of snakes swallowing their young. I sent slips of my two 
letters that had appeared in “ Land and Water ” to the 
editor, with the remark that I was rather averse to doing it 
unless I knew the person wishing the information, and the 
use he intended putting it to. Some time afterwards I had 
a call from Mr. Goode. On January nth, 1873, I sent a 
vol. v. (third series. 2 1 
