THENEW YORK 91331 ASTOR, LENOX AND 1897. Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1874, by JAMES SIMSON, In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. Re-entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1878, by JAMES SIMSON, In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, EDWARD O. JENKINS' PRINT, INTRODUCTION. THE following Contributions to Land and Water are, I think, too interesting and valuable to the lovers of natural history tc be allowed to remain in the columns of a newspaper.* There are too few of them to make a volume, and so are published in this form. I would have added to them but for the difficulty in finding subjects, or leisure to develop them, that have not been treated before, or treated in such a way as to require to be corrected, and placed on another and more permanent foundation than heretofore. Intelligent and ingenious people generally prefer to see an idea started and elucidated, with all the circumstances attending it—as some enjoy the breaking away of a fox, and being well up with the hounds, and in at the death-rather than have the dry result of an inquiry stated to them; for then they become, as it were, investigators along with him who makes it, while the particulars give them detailed and positive evidence of the conclusions arrived at. For my part, I consider the testimony to prove the leading fact set forth in these Contributions so complete, that nothing could be added to it; although it would be very interesting to have a careful examination of the anatomy of the Snake, to ascertain the physical peculiarities connected with the phenomenon described. What I have said on the subject of snakes swallowing their young applies to everything connected with natural history, viz: that it "should be settled by evidence, as a fact is proved in a court of justice; difficulties, suppositions or theories not being allowed to form part of the testimony" (p. 28). In other words, the writer should be placed in the witness-box, and severely cross-questioned as to his facts, systems and theories; or place himself there, and be his own examiner. In these days, on the subject of natural history among others, we stand greatly *Such of these Contributions as were printed in Land and Water have a note giving the date of publication; the others, with only one date attached, were returned by request. + It was originally intended to print these in the form of a pamphlet. in need of Bacon's philosophy, which might be called common sense systematized and refined, having for its object the finding of facts, and tracing them to their roots, or from their roots through their various ramifications; which constitute the philosophy of any question. I am well aware of the difficulties attending the reception of new facts and ideas, which are apt to bewilder and bore people whose judgments have never been really cultivated. The general and sometimes almost involuntary aversion to receive them is somewhat like the resistance made to a suit at law to dispossess people of their properties, to say nothing of the timidity of many to commit themselves to what might be, or what might be held by the public to be, "vulgar errors;" but that is presumed, by the "force of truth," sooner or later to disappear. It is wonderful how much the Serpent is mixed up with the Old and New Testament histories, and how little is known about it; and it would be remarkable if no meaning could be attached to the Scriptural allusions to it, or that no interest should be felt in regard to it. However odious the reptile is held to be, it wonderfully rivets the attention of people meeting it, and it is either timidly avoided or savagely killed. Many of them are not only harmless, but of great use to the farmer in clearing his fields of mice and other vermin; but some of the venomous kinds are so dangerous, that a person bitten by them might as well, in some instances, lay himself down and die, like a poisoned rat in its hole. It is one of the mysteries of nature why some snakes should be poisonous and others harmless, when the former could apparently serve the end for which it was created without its venomous peculiarity. The leading traits in the natural history of the Snake are incidentally illustrated in the present Contributions. The Papers on Other Subjects were added after the above was written. NEW YORK, 1st September, 1874. |