Document information

Physical location:

79.03.00a

Preferred Citation:

Ferdinand von Mueller to Thomas Meehan, 1879-03 [79.03.00a]. R.W. Home, Thomas A. Darragh, A.M. Lucas, Sara Maroske, D.M. Sinkora, J.H. Voigt and Monika Wells (eds), Correspondence of Ferdinand von Mueller, <https://vmcp.rbg.vic.gov.au/id//letters/1870-9/1879/79-03-00a-final.odt>, accessed June 9, 2026

1
Letter not found. The text given here is from the report of the meeting of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia held on 22 April 1879, Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia , 1879 , [vol. 31], 1880, pp. 139-40. The letter is dated to March 1879 as the latest date that it could have been sent to have arrived in Philadelphia to be read at the meeting on 22 April.
[Do Snakes Swallow their Young? Mr. Meehan remarked that European zoologists yet seemed incredulous that young snakes would enter their mothers' mouths for protection when frightened. He had witnessed such an occurrence, but it had been suggested that his eyes deceived him. Professor Brown Goode had collected evidence sufficient, he thought, for American zoologists to believe in.
2
Goode (1874).
Similar facts came to us from Australia. He read a part of a letter to himself from Baron Ferdinand Von Mueller, of Melbourne, stating that two observers, whom Dr. M. believed perfectly credible, had, independently of each other, witnessed similar protection in that country.
Dr. Kenderdine said he had personally seen a case where a garter snake so protected its young.]