On the Poison of the Rattlesnake. 357 



ley, &c. and it is furnished with milk for drink morning and evening. It 

 however willingly accepts fruits and the branches of the acacia which arc 

 presented to it. It seizes the leaves with its long rugous and narrow 

 tongue by rolling it about them, and seems annoyed when it is obliged to 

 take any thing from the ground, which it seems to do with difficulty. To 

 accomplish this it stretches first one, then the other of its long fore-legs 

 asunder, and it is not till after repeated attempts that it is able to seize the 

 objects with its lips and tongue. 



The pace of the Giraffe is an amble, though when pursued it flies with 

 extreme rapidity, but the small size of its lungs prevents it from supporting 

 a lengthened chase. The Giraffe defends itself against the lion, its prin- 

 cipal enemy, with its fore feet, with which it strikes with such force as 

 often to repulse him. The specimen in the museum is about two years 

 and a half old. 



M. Geoffroy- Saint- Hilaire on the 8th of August presented two heads of 

 the Giraffe to the Academy in illustration of its organization. One of these, 

 the head of a young animal, showed that the horns are not, as believed, 

 simple excrescences of the frontal bone, but a superadded process, which 

 it is possible to separate at a certain age. This structure, common to the 

 stag, seems to justify the classification adopted by M. Geoffroy, especially 

 as it has also been remarked, that in the horns of the adult Giraffe are tu- 

 berosities analogous to the antlers of the stag. 



The name Camelo-pardalis (camel-leopard) was given by the Romans 

 to this animal, from a fancied combination of the characters of the camel 

 and leopard ; but its ancient denomination was Zurapha, from which the 

 name Giraffe has been adopted: 



4. On the Poison of the Rattlesnake. 



The curious fact regarding the poison of the Rattlesnake, alluded to in 

 our last number, as related by Mr Audubon, was, it has been pointed out to 

 us, originally published in a volume of Letters by J. Hector St John, an 

 American farmer, and copied into Z)oJ^/e'7/'A" Annual Register for 1782, We 

 now give it as there detailed. 



" One of this species (the rattlesnake) was the cause some years ago of 

 a most deplorable accident, which I shall relate to you as I had it from the 

 widow and mother of the victims. A Dutch farmer of the Minisink went 

 to mowing with his negroes in his boots, a precaution used to prevent be- 

 ing stung : Inadvertently he trod on a snake, which immediately flew at 

 his legs, and as it drew back in order to renew its blow, one of his negroes 

 cut it in two with his scythe. They prosecuted their work and returned 

 home. At night the farmer pulled off his boots and went to bed, and was 

 soon after attacked with a strange sickness at his stomach ; he swelled, and, 

 before a physician could be sent for, died. The sudden death of this man 

 did not cause much inquiry. The neighbourhood wondered as is usual in 

 such cases, and without any further examination the corpse was buried. A few 

 days after the son put on his father's boots, and went to the meadow. At 

 night he pulled them off, went to bed, and was attacked with the same 

 ^ symptoms, about the same time, and died in the morning. A little before 



