t 



( 136 ) 



* "We refolved to end out poifon-inquiries by tafting the venomous liquor. 



* Accordingly, having diluted a quantity of it with a very little warm water, 

 ' feveral of us ventured to put feme of it upon the tip of our tongues. We all 

 ' agreed, that it tafted very (harp and fiery, as if the tongue had been ftruck 



* through with fomething fcalding or burning. This fenfation went not off in 



* two or three hours, and one gentleman, who would not be fatisfied without 



* trying a large drop undiluted, found his tongue fwelled, with a little inflam- 



* mation, and the forenefs lafted two days ; but neither his, nor our boldnefs, 

 was attended with any ill confequence. 



• This is no obje<5tion to the hurtful quality of this juice: for, as fome chy- 



* mical liquors ferment with others of a certain kind only, fo thefe poifonous 

 ' fatts may affeft one fluid of the body, and not another ; it is fufficient to the 



* prcfent purpofe to fay, that the faline fpicula arc broken and dilTolved in the 



* mouth by the clammy falival humour : and if any of them (hould pafs thence 

 ' into the (lomach and inteftines, the balfam of the bile will be an antidote 

 ^ there, powerful enough to overcome their force. 



* Thefe experiments upon the Viper poifon and the blood, are a fufficient 

 ' confirmation, that the nervous liquor only is afFeded by this venom ; and at 

 ' the fame time afford a convincing proof, how much thofe fcanty principles of 



* our chymifts, acid and alkali, fall (hort in explaining the anions of natural 

 ' bodies.j fince neither of thefe falts could in any way be found to affcd the 



* viperins venom.' 



Mechanical Account of Poifons, p. 14, & feq. Ed. 1747. 



The Doiftor's Eflay on the Nervous Fluid and the manner in which it is 

 affefled by animal poifons, is too long to infert in this place, but the Reader 

 will find it in the Introdudlion to the work from which the preceding paflage is 

 taken ; that is to fay, in the later editions, for it is not to be found in the firft, 

 printed 1702. 





