Coming down to our own times, Professor Goode mentioned Dr. Edward Palmer, of the Smithsonian Institute of Washington, a well-known traveller and collector, who in Paraguay saw seven young crotali run into their mother’s mouth. After the snake was killed, they all ran out. The parent and her brood are now in the National Museum at Washington, D.C. Similar occurrences were witnessed by Professor Sydney J. Smith, of Yale College; the Rev. Chauncey Loomis, M.D., of Middletown University; Dr. D. L. Phares; Mr. Thomas Meham of Philadelphia; a member of the Convention then present; and other ‘gentlemen whose statements as naturalists were not to be doubted.’ ‘Due weight should be given to the wide distribution of the witnesses and the remarkable concurrence of their statements,’ said the speaker.
Professors Wyman and Gill, and other physiologists then present, showed that there is no physical reason why young snakes should not remain for a time in the body of the mother. The gastric juice acts slowly on living tissues, and as for respiration, it is almost impossible to smother reptiles. ‘Snakes can live for a long time immersed in water, and even in bottles hermetically sealed, and why not in a place of refuge?’ argued Mr. Putnam. Instances were given of frogs escaping from the stomach of snakes; also of other snakes swallowed by a larger species returning to the light of day.
As a habit, if the swallowing ‘is not protective there is no parallel; if protective, a similar habit is seen in some fishes of the South American waters, of the genera Arius, Bagrus, and Geophagus, where the males carry the eggs for safety in their mouths and gill openings.’ Mr. Putnam instanced the Pipe-fish (Syngnathus Peckianus), whose young when in an aquarium have been seen to go in and out of the pouch of the male fish; and that a belief prevails among some sailors that young sharks which suddenly disappear have gone into the mouth of the mother. Some South American fishes carry their eggs in their mouth, and why should there not exist an equally motherly regard on the part of snakes?
Mr. F. W. Putnam, secretary to the Association, had made himself acquainted with all the English ‘viper-swallowing’ literature of any importance up to the date of his paper on the subject in the American Naturalist, 1869. Previous to that date, Science Gossip, the Field, the Zoologist, and other English journals had devoted more space to the subject than subsequently; and from these Mr. Putnam cited many records from intelligent observers, in proof ‘that snakes do afford refuge to their young.’ Of especial importance, as corroborative evidence, were the statements and anatomical investigations of Dr. Edwardes Crispe, F.Z.S., etc., who had for a long while been studying the physiological possibility of such a retreat. On the question, Would not the young snakes be rapidly digested in the stomach of the parent? this anatomist showed that they would not come in contact with the gastric juice at all, and that there is ample room in the expansile œsophagus to receive them. He had made experiments with various snakes by filling the stomach with water, in order to ascertain its capacity in bulk. In 1855, Dr. E. Crispe had read a paper on this subject at one of the meetings of the Zoological Society, and again in 1862, when his previous opinions had become confirmed. He had ‘positive evidence enabling him to state with certainty that the English viper and some other venomous snakes do swallow their young at an early period.’
Towards the end of the last century, Gilbert White, in his History of Selborne, refers to the prevalent theory, and the instances recorded by him are by the earlier editors of his works regarded rather as evidence than the contrary. In the edition of 1851, the editor Jesse, himself a naturalist, took pains to ascertain facts concerning vipers, and he believed in the evidence given him. He had found vipers in their mother’s ‘stomach’ (he does not say oviduct) ‘of a much larger size (seven inches) than they would be when first excluded.’
(In the later editions of the History of Selborne, it is much to be regretted that doubts are again thrown on the subject; and this in face of the opinions of men of eminence, who had written from observation, and had physiologically shown the possibility of such a refuge.)
Mr. Putnam also quoted Mr. M. C. Cooke, the author of Our Reptiles, and at that time editor of Science Gossip. Here is a herpetologist well able to form an unbiassed opinion, and who in his work says on this question: ‘Men of science and repute, clergymen, naturalists, in common with those who make no profession of learning, have combined in this belief. Add to these, gentlemen whose statements in other branches of natural history would not be doubted.’ Among them were Henry Doubleday, Esq. of Epping, a well-known entomologist; the Rev. H. Bond, of South Pellerton, Somerset; T. H. Gurney, of Calton Hall, Norwich, a well-known ornithologist; and several others of similar scientific standing.
Curiously, no one appears to doubt a similar maternal instinct as displayed in our little native lizard, Zootica vivipara! Mr. Doubleday related the case of one being accidentally trodden upon, when three young ones ran out of her mouth. It was immediately killed and opened, and two others that had been too much injured by the foot to make their escape were still within the parent. At the time when a controversy on the viper question was going on, Mr. Edward Newman edited the Zoologist, and he himself related a most confirmatory case of this viviparous lizard. A gentleman who was collecting, caught one with two young ones; all three were consigned to his pocket vasculum. On reaching home the two young ones had disappeared, and the mother looked in such goodly condition that he thought she must have made a meal of her offspring. Next morning, behold! there were the two little ones and their devoted parent all safe and sound. She had sheltered them within her body! And, as Mr. Newman added, ‘the narrators are of that class who do know what to observe and how to observe it.’
In May 1865 a clergyman in Norfolk communicated to Science Gossip that he had seen six or seven young vipers run helter-skelter down their mother’s throat. He killed the parent and ‘out came the little ones.’ In July another correspondent of the same paper saw several young vipers vanish in a like manner, adding, ‘By the way the mother opened her mouth to receive them, he would say they were accustomed to that sort of thing.’ Mr. J. H. Gurney recorded that a viper with young ones was disturbed, when two of the latter ran into her open mouth, the second one after getting half in wriggling out again. The viper was cut open to seek a reason for this, when a recently swallowed mouse was found stopping up the way. The first had managed to get into safe quarters, but the second could not pass.