Oct. 1, 1S67.] 



HARDWICKE'S SCIEN CE- GOS SI P. 



237 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



Is the Poison of the Viper Eatal? — Your 

 correspondent who signs " Henry II. Ullyett " asks if 

 there is any known instance of the viper's poison 

 having- proved directly fatal, and I will tell him of 

 one which I heard of from an eye-witness a few days 

 since. Two summers ago a poor woman was found 

 dead on Poundberry, near Dorchester (Poundberry 

 is a wild kind of spot, a sort of waste) ; the body 

 was swollen and much discoloured, — there were 

 evident marks of the bite, and the viper was dis- 

 covered curled up in her flannel petticoat. Some 

 respectable persons came forward to state that they 

 had met the woman seemingly in perfect health 

 early that morning, on her way to the town. It 

 was late in the evening when the body was found, 

 and the general opinion was that, fatigued by the 

 heat, she had sat down on] the heath to rest, that 

 the reptile had made its way up her dress, and on 

 her moving had bitten her on her side just where 

 the small mark was visible, that the poison took 

 effect almost immediately, that she became too 

 weak to continue her journey and died in a few 

 hours. The youth (a young relative of mine), 

 who saw the dead body, and the living viper, 

 will, I am sure, be glad to give Mr. Henry 

 Ullyett any further information in his power. I 

 remember when I lived in Carmarthenshire, South 

 Wales, hearing of a woman having died at Pembry, 

 a village distant about five miles from my home, 

 of the bite of a viper : she had gone to Cwm- 

 Cethiu, a wood in the neighbourhood, to gather 

 sticks for firewood, and was bitten in the hand. 

 She went to an old herb " doctress " who applied a 

 poultice of charms, and proper restoratives not 

 being administered the poor creature died. But 

 there was a legend about these Cwm-Cethin snakes, 

 as the country folks called them. They were said 

 to be red in colour, aud to have the power of flying ; 

 one having, the tale stated, escaped from a vessel 

 which had been wrecked on the sands about fifty 

 years ago, consequently they were not true 

 Welch vipers, but a highly poisonous importation, 

 according to "Rural Natural History."— Helen E. 

 Watney. 



Atomechanics. — A novel chemical hypothesis is 

 now being taught by Professor Gustavus Heinrichs, 

 of the Iowa State University, U.S. He assumes 

 that the atoms of the different chemical elements 

 only differ with regard to quantity — the number and 

 relative position of the atoms of some one primary 

 matter; and since everything would thus be com- 

 posed of this one primary matter, he calls it " pan- 

 togen," and its atoms " panatoms." Professor 

 Heinrichs demonstrates that this hypothesis ex- 

 plains the numerical relation of the atomic weights, 

 and that the chemical, physical, and morphological 

 properties of the elements, and then* combinations, 

 may be calculated just as the orbit of a planet is 

 calculated. Iu answer to any doubt that may be 

 raised as to the existence of " pantogen," Professor 

 Heinrichs asks, Can you mention one single pro- 

 perty which is not in some degree common to all 

 elements ? the difference being simply quantitative. 

 The theory has at least the advantages of plausi- 

 bility, and its development certainly opens a large 

 field for useful research, owing to the enormous 

 benefit which would result from the application of 

 the theory, should it prove to be a sound one. — 

 Mining Journal. 



A Child Bitten by a Vipek. — The distressing 

 narrative which follows has been communicated to 

 us. " Two little children, aged respectively nine 

 aud eleven, were looking for blackberries in Hands- 

 worth Wood, yesterday (Thursday), when the 

 younger (a little girl) was suddenly bitten in the 

 leg by a snake (supposed to be a viper). The elder 

 (a boy) screamed for assistance, but, being frigh- 

 tened at the reptile, ran to his home, in a lane 

 adjoining the wood. His mother was at home, and 

 came to the assistance of the girl (her niece). But 

 the poor [thing was in her last agony. It looked 

 piteously in her aunt's face, and died without saying 

 a word." — Birmingham Daily Post, Friday, Sept. 13, 

 1867. 



[The above account was sent to us by five or six 

 correspondents, one of whom furnishes the following 

 comment: "In reference to the paragraph from 

 yesterday's Birmingham Daily Post which I sent you, 

 I find by to-day's Post that Mr. Downes contradicts 

 the report, and says that there is no truth whatever 

 in any part of it. No death has occurred ; no 

 inquest is to be held ; consequently the report is a 

 wicked hoax."] 



Eangs of Spideks. — At the risk of seeming very 

 hard of belief, 1 venture again to refer to the 

 subject of spiders poisoning their prey. In vol. ii., 

 p. 229, Mr. Mills gives an account of the supposed 

 poison gland of a spider. Now I don't quite under- 

 stand it. The fang ends in a point, but Mr. Mills 

 says the gland is a sac, and that it is attached to 

 the base of the fang by its narrow end. How could 

 the wide end reach up to the point, and how is it 

 attached to the aperture, aud how can the poison 

 get out as it is a " closed sac " ? I have tried, but 

 however I cannot find anything more than the 

 muscular fibre, and, not succeeding, I left this, and 

 tried for the aperture. Eirst, as a transparent 

 object. As the late Mr. Beck said, I could not see 

 it, trying all kinds of ways. Most fangs are lined, 

 and of course, if there were an aperture, there would 

 be a break in the lines ; but I cannot make out that 

 it is so. Then I tried as an opaque object, and in 

 one or two fangs I thought I had found a most 

 evident opening ; but discovered it was only a 

 bubble of air, though it gives a capital representa- 

 tion of an opening. , Next I enclosed a bubble of 

 air in a fang Under water. This I could work back- 

 ward and forward ; but never a bit could I force it 

 through the opening, if there be one, not even when 

 pressing the fang hard enough to break it. I have 

 now and then seen what had something of the 

 appearance of an aperture, but it turned out only a 

 deception. It is quite certain that if there be an 

 aperture, pressure should drive either air or water 

 out of it. Then, again, it don't seem to me to agree 

 with the action of a spider. In killing an insect by 

 stabbiug it, you must do so in one particular part, 

 and it will die very quickly — nearly as soon as when 

 a spider kills it. I think it will be found that a 

 spider always grips a fly in the same spot. It does 

 not always die at once, for I have seen a fly retain 

 life for a minute or more. Then the spicier some- 

 how sucks the contents of the fly, keeping hold of 

 it all the while with its fangs, and turning it round 

 and round till a shapeless mass of skin is left, which 

 he at last throws away. Very different is its action 

 to that of a snake, which bites its prey, injecting the 

 poison into the wound, and leaving it to produce its 

 effect. I think this should be examined rather more 

 before deciding that the spider kills its prey by 

 driving two fangs into the poor fly, and injecting 



