3-008-469 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Young python in the Zoological Society's Gardens, 1862. 'That the germs of life were implanted in [the eggs], and that all went on satisfactorily up to the fifteenth day after incubation commenced, is known from the examination made of one of them at that period, and from the satisfactory discovery of a living embryo python in its interior. Our Engraving represents this little animal, now carefully preserved in spirits...Whether the other eggs are likely to be hatched in due course of time is still, we believe, a little uncertain. Only one or two instances have occurred in which a record has been kept of the "period" of incubation of the python. In the best- known case, that which took place in 1841 in the Jardin des Plantes at Paris, the period was two months; but in another instance, which occurred in India, the eggs were not hatched until more than three months after the female had commenced sitting upon them. There is, therefore, no reason to doubt that the visitors to the Zoological Society's Gardens may yet eventually be gratified by the sight of a brood of young pythons, though nearly ten weeks have now elapsed without any sign of that desirable event taking place'. From "Illustrated London News", 1862.