_Slow-worm Superstition_ (Vol. viii., pp. 33. 479.).--I believe that the
superstition alluded to is {74} not confined to one country, nor to one
species of reptile. I remember to have heard some countrymen in Cornwall,
who had killed an adder, say that it would not cease to writhe until the
sun had gone down. Like many other so-called superstitions, it is probably
founded on a close observation of a natural phenomenon; and I feel quite
sure that I have seen in print, although I cannot now call to mind where,
that it is to be accounted for by the fact, that in these cold-blooded
animals the nervous irritability does not cease until checked or destroyed
by the chilling dews of evening.