i6 A NATURAL HISTORY 



kiird. To this, I fhall add fome Experiments made by the in- 

 genious Mr. Addijbny who fays — 



— ** A Dog that has his Nofe held in the Vapour (within the 

 ** Cave) lofes all the Signs of Life m a very Uttle time." Then 

 he obferveSj how long a Dog was expiring the firfl: time> and af- 

 ter his Recovery, and found no fenfible Difference. " A Viper 

 ** put in, adds he, bore it nine Minutes the firfl time we put it 

 *' in, and ten the fecond. When we brought it out after the firft 

 " Trial, it took fuch a vaft quantity of Air into its Lungs, that 

 " it fwell'd almofl: twice as big as before, and it was perhaps, on 

 " this Stock of Air, that it lived a Minute longer, 



" A Torch, Snuff and all, goes out in a moment, when dipt in- 



** to the Vapours or Steams of that Cave^ A Piftol can't fire in 



" it. I fplit a Reed, and laid in the Channel of it a Train of 

 '* Gun-powder, fo that one end of the Reed was above the Va- 

 " pour, and the other at the bottom of it; and I found, tho' the 

 ** Steam was flrong enough to hinder a Piftol from taking fire in 

 " it — that it could not intercept the Train of Fire, when it once 

 " begun flaflnng, nor prevent it from running to the very end.— Fire 

 " will live in it no longer than in Water, becaufe it wraps itfeif 

 " in the fame manner about the Flame, and by its Continuity 

 " hinders any quantity of Air, or Nitre from coming to its 

 *' fuccour *." 



Nor are our Mines in Great Britain altogether free from- 

 thefe fatal Damps, that have turn'd Coal-pits into Graves, In a 

 Coal-pit belonging to Lord Sinclair in Scotland, feven or eight 

 Men intending to work in a Place where they had been the Day 

 before, but flepping a little further, they all fell down dead, as 

 if they had been fliot. The Wife of one of them, venturing to 

 fee her Hufl:)and, fell down dead as foon as (he came near the 

 Corps -f-. 



III. We come now to the fenfible Region, where animal Poi- 

 fons reign ; that is, Poifon drawn from Animals, as the Viper, Afp, 

 Scorpion, Lepus Marinus : and here we are to encounter with an 

 Army of Serpents, and their formidable Train. 



When we fpeak of the Poifon of Serpents, we mufi not f^ip- 

 pofe it diffufed thro' the whole Body, as fome have imao;ined. 



Many 



* Ws mrkfj vol. iii. p. 8j 97. t Lowthorp's Abridgment, vol ii. p 37v 



