Blindworm n. (Zool.) A small, burrowing, snakelike, limbless lizard (Anguis fragilis), with minute eyes, popularly believed to be blind; the slowworm; formerly a name for the adder. "Newts and blindworms do no wrong."
... but always of the harmless, blindworm variety. Of this species I caught two and admired them, but I did not make pets of them as I did of nearly everything else I could ... — Jethou - or Crusoe Life in the Channel Isles • E. R. Suffling