March 13. for there is no point in the one, nor sting in the other to poison other animals. In all, poisonous serpents there is a small moveable bone adhering to each side of the upper jaw; in these, there are two or three tubular fangs, which resemble the canine teeth. The fangs can be laid flat and erected at the pleasure of the animal; and these fangs are the real stings of serpents, and the means by which they convey their poison. At the base of each fang is a small vesicle, which contains a little drop of a yellowish coloured liquor; this vesicle, at the bottom of the tooth, being comprefsed when the animal bites, the liquor pafses through the tube in the tooth into the wound. These facts were first mentioned by Rhedi, and afterwards confirmed by Dr. Tyson in his account of the rattlesnake given in the Philosophical Transactions. The North American Indians, after carefully extracting these venomous fangs, suffer the rattlesnake to bite them till the blood flows, with total impunity.

Of the hundred and thirty-two species of serpents that have been mentioned by Linnæus, there have been only twenty-three marked by him as pofsefsed of poisonous fangs. Dr Walker observes, that the amphisbæna fuliginosa, a serpent well known in the Brazils, has no fangs; of course Linnæus has not marked it as poisonous, and yet its bite is well known by the Portuguese to be mortal; we must therefore conclude, (says he,) that there is no security to be found in serpents being destitute of moveable fangs; for in this instance, and I believe many others, they are capable of conveying a mortal

poison, though not pofsefsed of these fangs or canine teeth, and of course their mouth is of different structure from other poisonous serpents.

Of the poison itself.

We must now turn our attention to the nature of the poison injected into the wound. This subject was first greatly elucidated by some experiments made by Rhedi, under the auspices of Ferdinand II. great duke of Tuscany. By these means a number of particulars were made known, which before were entirely unknown. The principal of these are the following:

When he either caused a living viper to bite a dog, or wounded him with the teeth of one newly dead, (the poisonous vesicle remaining unbroken,) the event was the same. If the bite was repeated, its effect became weaker, and at last was lost; the poison contained in the vesicle being totally exhausted. That the teeth of serpents when extended to bite, were moistened over with a certain liquor; and when the vesicle at the base was prefsed, a drop ofpoison flowed to the point of the fang. When the poison, thus flow. ing from the vesicle, was received first in soft bread or a sponge, an animal bitten by the serpent received no more harm from the wound than being pricked by a needle, till after a few days when the venom was restored a-fresh; but when an animal was wounded by the point of a needle dipped in the poison, it was tormented with the same pains as if it had been bit ten by the viper itself. Preserving some of this poison in a glass, and totally evaporating the moisture in the sun, when the resid uum was diluted with water, and the point of a needle dipped in the solution, Rhedi found, to his great surprise, that it had the game

effect as when recent. But the boldness of one Tozzi, threw all the learned men of the age into the greatest astonishment ;-he drank a quantity of this poison without sustaining the least injury. This seems to have been known to the ancients; for Lucan, in the ninth book of his Pharsalia, speaking of the serpent,

says,

Noxia serpentum est admisto sa guinea pestis
M su viris habent, et fatum dente minantur,
Pocula morte carent.

PHARSAL. lib. ix. v. 614.

Many barbarous nations are perfectly acquainted with this property of the poison of serpents; for they dip their arrows in that poison, and when once introduced into human blood it is productive of the most terrible consequences. But to return to our Florentines. That they might confirm this principle, they collected a quantity of poison, and gave it to different animals without producing the least inconvenience; but when applied to an external wound, every one of those horrid symptoms which accompany the real bite followed, viz. infiammatory and malignant fevers, ending in death, unless nature, by a spontaneous hemorrhage, or some other evacuation, discharged this poison. With respect to the experiments of Rhedi, every one of his observations prove, that the liquid prefsed out of the vesicle which moistens the fangs of the serpents, is only noxious` by being conveyed into the blood, by means of a puncture or wound; and the case of Tozzi, who drank a considerable quantity of this poison without suffering injury, proves that it hurts the blood, only when externally mixed with it.

Symptoms of the bite.

The symptoms that attend the bite of the viper, are, a smarting in the part wounded; swelling, palenefs, snapping of the eyes, tears; horror with coldnefs; a weak pulse, afterwards becoming unequal, thirst, cold sweat, pain in the reins; diarrhoea with griping and vomiting; difficulty of breathing, drowsiness, and convulsions, which terminate in death.

Coluber prestor, a native of Sweden. Symptoms attending the bite of it, are pain in the wound, tumour, thirst, asthma, axxieties, convulsions, and death.

There is a serpent still more dreadful than any of the former, found in Sweden, called coluber carcia. The bite of this is followed by immediate change of colour, coldness, stupor, palpitation of the heart, acute pain all over the body, and death. tried oil in this case, but it proved ineffectual.

Linnæus

The coluber aspis of Linnæus, is an animal commonly called the Egyptian asp, and well known to the ancients. The bite is followed by lafsitude, torpor, and death without pain. For these reasons, Cleopatra made use of this creature to put an end to

her existence.

The cratalus horridus of Linnæus, the rattlesnake, kills in a very sudden manner; his bite usually producing death within twelve hours.

But the most horrid of all the serpent tribe, is what is called the coluber naga, of Linnæus. This is the serpent called in the East Indies cobra de capello. Its bite kills within an hour, with the most excruciating pains, and is attended with instant putrifaction,

and the flesh separates from the bones immediately. This is the serpent the ancients called Sepe.

Of the cure.

It would extend this paper to a prodigious length if I were to enumerate all the antidotes that have been employed against the bite of serpents. I fhall confine myself to a few. About sixty years ago, an effectual remedy for the bite of a viper was discovered in England, by chaffing the part with warm Florentine oil. The viper catchers are so confident of this remedy, that, for a small trifle, they will let a viper bite their hand. Linnæus found that the same antidote answered against the bite of the coluber prestor. In the case of the rattlesnake we have a very powerful antidote in the polygala senega, or rattlesnake root, for which we are indebted to the North American Indians. Proof was made of it in Sweden by Linnæus. A maid servant at Upsal, was bitten by a serpent upon a very dangerous place. The most dreadful symptoms followed the bite, and such as demanded the application of the most decisive remedies. Linnæus was sent to, and he sent two doses of the powder of this root, by which he was almost entirely recovered in two days. Besides these, there are other remedies used by the Americans, as the veratrum luteum, aletris farinosa, uvularia perfoliata, sanicula Cañadensis, and others. The antidote against the coluber naga, or cobra de capella, is the ophioriza mungos, or Indian ophiorriza, a description of which may be seen in an elegant difsertation on that subject by Darelius, in the Amoenitates Academia.

P. H. N.