ASCRIBED TO THE RATTLE-SNAKE. ^79t 



fTgns, and has created them mod inveterate enemies; for as 

 he has appointed cats to deftroy mice, fo has he provided the 

 Ichneumon (Vixen a Ichneumon) againft the former ferpent. His account* 

 and the Hog to perlecute the latter. He has moreover given 

 the Crotalus a very flow motion, and has annexed a kind of 

 rattle to its tale, by the motion of which it gives notice of its 

 approach : but, lefl this flownefs fliould be too great a dif- 

 advantage to the animal itfelf, he has favoured it with a certain 

 power of fafcinating fquirrels from high trees, and birds from 

 the air into its throat, in the fame manner as flies are precipi- 

 tated into tlie jaws of the lazy load.''* 



Linnaeus was, certainly, extremely credulous, though I It is certain that 

 do not find that any of his profelTed biographers have taken cr^^J'u^ow'*** 

 notice of this feature of his mind. But the proofs of my ob- 

 fervation are numerous: they are to be found in almofi every 

 efTay that he has written. His credulity with refpe6l to the 

 powers of medicines is, perhaps, peculiarly flriking \. Hovsr 

 far this credulity, in a mindotherwife truly great (a mind which 

 with refpedl to the arrangement of natural bodies has never 

 been equalled), is to be fought for in the general charader of 

 the country which gave Linnceus birth, I fhall not paufe to in- 

 quire. Yetin an invefligation of this kind, where the opinion 

 of the Swedifli Pliny is necelfarily mentioned, it might be 

 curious to look to the fources of his credulity. The fludy of 

 nature, as it refpe«5ls this globe, is, perhaps, of all the fciences, 

 the mofl unfavourable to fuperftition, or credulity. But the 

 greateft of naturalifts was one of the ruoft credulous of philofo- 

 phers. 



It is proper, however, to obferve, in this place, that Lin- He never was 

 nasus by no means alferts, that he himfelf had ever been a himfelf a^imefs 



* See Reflexions on the Study of Nature, tranflated from the 

 Latin of Linnaeus, p. 33 & 34. Dublin edition, 1786. Dr. I. E. 

 Smith, the ingenious tranflator of this dilTcrtation, in a note to the 

 above pafTage, has the following words. " This opinion of the 

 fafcinating power of the Toad has been refuted, and the appear- ' 

 ance which gave rife to it fully accoun^v.d for, by Mr. Pennant, in 

 his Britifli Zoology. Probably the ftory of the rattle-fnake's having 

 a fimilar power might be found equally falfe, if enquired into with 

 the lame degree of accuracy." p. 34. 



f See his Materia Medica, liber, i. de Plantis, &c. Amftelae^ 

 darai: 1749. 



witnels 



