55^ SiVAKES. 



or the ' Juyce of the Bag at the root of the Master Teeth ; ' 

 and Redi tasted both the Gall and the * Spittle from the Bag' 

 in order to test this great question, and found 'the Gall 

 sharp and the Spittle flat.' As the learned physicians of the 

 nineteenth century have been again trying effects, so did 

 those 'Knowing Physicians' work out similar problems 

 in 1670, no doubt suggesting many things that have 

 subsequently been solved and perfected. One Francini 

 was hard to convince that only a tooth and not a demoniacal 

 spirit inflicted the injury ; whereupon, to convince that 

 unbeliever, they thrust a thorn and a pin into the breast of a 

 fowl, which betrayed no ill effects ; but a splinter of wood 

 covered with ' Spittle from the Bag' killed a pigeon as 

 quickly as the ' Master Tooth.' They showed, also, that a 

 dissevered head was able to bite, and its 'Biting is as 

 dangerous as when the Viper Is entire.' They proved other 

 things, too numerous to recount ; and particularly, that 

 venom was not injurious in a healthy stomach, the question 

 from which we have strayed to Florence. 



Lately we have been led to think that it is something 

 more than harmless. Through the researches of Professors 

 Selmi, Lacerda, Gautier, and others, we learn that from the 

 powerful peptic properties of the venom it may become a valu- 

 able medicine. I think I am correct in stating that a Dr. C. 

 Hering of Philadelphia, when practising in British Guiana 

 some forty years ago, introduced the venom of our celebrated 

 Curucucu {Lachesis inutus) into medicine ; and that since 

 then, serpent venoms have held an important place in the 

 Homoeopathic Pharmacopeia. Already we have hinted at 

 the digestive properties of venom to the serpents themselves, 



