OF SERPENTS. ' -37 



Many Errors about the particular Situation of it, have been hap- 

 pily removed by the Learned Dr. ReJiy and Di'.Mead^ who of)- 

 lerves the Viper has alvi'ays been fo notorious for its Poifon, that 

 the moft remote Antiquity, made it an Emblem of what is hurt- 

 ful and deftrudtive, but were not agreed from whence the Poifon 

 proceeded, whether from the Saliva^ the ^eeth^ the Gallj &c. 

 which leads me to a Paflage in the Jioble Italian, w^ho fays : 



That as a certain Learned Society in Italy were debating 



this Point, one jacobus Sozzi {audiendi gratia) who was allow'd to 

 be prefent, ftationed himfelf in a corner of the Place, and hear- 

 ing fome of them affirm that the Poifon was in the Gall-bladder, 

 fell a fmiling ; and being afk'd the Reafon, he anfwer'd, that 

 the Serpent's Gall was an innocent Part : Whereupon, in their 

 Prefence, he drank a Glafs of Wine, mixt with the Gall of a 

 Viper\ without any ill Effetfl. 



One of the Company faid, he came thither with his Body 

 prepared by Alexipharmicks. He, to convince them of the con- 

 trary, try'd the Experiment upon Dogs, and other Animals, by 

 giving them the Gall of Vipers to drink in abundance, without 

 any Danger enfuing *. 



i N the Debate about the Seat of the Poifon, the famous Ita- 

 lian maintains, that all the Venom of a Serpent confifts in a yellow 

 Liquor contain'd in a Bladder, at the bottom of its Tooth, which 

 Liquor, upon its biting, by the Preflure of the Bladder, is forced 

 thro' a Tube within the Tooth, into the Wound, and thence en- 

 fue direful Eifeds. This Hypothefis he fupports by a good num- 

 ber of Experiments upon various Animals, which were bit by a 

 Viper, after thofe venemous Bags were taken out, without any 

 Signs of Poifon, or any ill Confequence at all-f*. 



Another celebrated Pbyfcian maintains, that this yellow 

 Liquid is not poifonous, that he had given it to Pigeons as Food, 

 without their being at all diforder'd thereby.— That the Viper's 

 Bite, he had always found mortal to Animals, even after the ve- 

 nemous Bag was taken out, as well as before. That therefore 



the Poifon muft lie in the irritated Spirits of the Viper , which it 

 exhales in the Ardor of its biting, and which are fo cold that 

 they curdle the Blood, and flop the Circulation %. 



E 2 Both 



* "Redi nobilis ^retini Experm. in Kes NatuTaksj pag. 163, 164, KJ5. 

 -f- Seignior Redi. % Monfteur Charras, 



