THE NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. VAG 
newt, is only the larva of the land-eft, as tadpoles are of frogs. 
Lest I should be suspected to misunderstand his meaning, I 
shall give it in his own words. Speaking of the coverings to 
the gills of the mud inguana, he proceeds to say that, “ The 
form of these pennated coverings approaches very near to what 
I have some time ago observed in the larva or aquatic state of 
our English eft, or newt ; which serve them for coverings to 
their gills, and for fins to swim with while in this state ; and 
which they lose, as well as the fins of their tails, when they 
change their state and become land animals, as I have observed, 
by keeping them alive for some time myself.” 
Linneus, in his System of Nature, hints more than once 
at what Mr. Ellis advances. 
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 blindworm (Anguis fragilis, 
so-called because it snaps in sunder with a small blow), I have 
found, on examination, that it is perfectly innocuous. A neigh- 
boring yeoman (to whom I am indebted for some good hints) 
killed and opened a female viper about the 27th 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 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 bring- 
ing 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 sur- 
