28o SNAKES. 



other communications saw light through the pages of the 

 Philosophical Transactions during the next few years. 



In experimenting to discover the source of the ' mischief,' 

 one skilful ' Chyrurgeon ' proved that the gall of vipers is not 

 venomous, only bitter. 



A Mr. John Clayton, in an Account of tJie Beasts in Virginia^ 

 1694, tells us the rattlesnake's 'Tayle is composed of perished 

 Joynts like a dry Husk. The Old shake and shiver these 

 Rattles with v/onderful Nimbleness; the Snake is a Majestick 

 sort of Creature, and will scarce meddle with anything unless 

 provoked.' He also describes the ' fistulous Teeth ' and the 

 poison being injected through these ' into the very mass of 

 the blood.' Effective remedies are spoken of, as if not much 

 doubt of a cure existed. An Indian was bitten in the arm, 

 who ' clapt a hot burning coal thereon and singed it stoutly.' 



In Italy experiments still went on, and a Mr. C. J. Sprengle 

 wrote to the Royal Society from Milan (1722), that in a room 

 opened at the top were sixty vipers from all parts of Italy. 

 * Whereupon we catch'd some mice and threw them in, one 

 at a time, among all that number of vipers ; but not one con- 

 cerned himself about the mice, only one pregnant viper who 

 interchanged eyes with the mouse, which took a turn or 

 two, giving now and then a squeak, and then ran with great 

 swiftness into the chops of the viper, where it gradually sunk 

 down the gullet* And from this sinister proceeding on the 

 part of the viper, Mr. Sprengle argues a fact generally borne 

 out in zoological collections ever since, namely, that venomous 

 snakes in captivity will not eat until they become reconciled. 



And so by degrees these many interesting ophiological 

 facts have been worked out and established. In 1733, vol. 



