(Jg OUR REPTILES. 



Adder, for in some districts it is known by one name 

 and in some by the other, is not such a lover of 

 water as the snake, and may generally be found in 

 dry woods and heaths, in sandy banks, and similar 

 localities. It has been said that they are more than 

 usually common in the dry woods on the chalky soil 

 of Kent, and they certainly come nearly within the 

 sound of Bow bells, for they have been met with in 

 the little woods around Hampstead, Highgate, and 

 Hornsey. 



It is a common belief that the venom of the 

 Viper, and other serpents, is almost innocuous in 

 winter, and its virulence is proportionate to the 

 heat of the weather, whether at home or abroad ; 

 and that the snakes of tropical climes are more 

 deadly venomous than those of temperate countries, 

 on account of the greater heat. Eecently Dr. 

 Gruyon has set himself to investigate this subject, 

 especially whether the poison is innocuous in winter, 

 with the following results : — 



Eegarding its violence, he says there is a general 

 belief abroad that it is much more powerful in 

 summer than in winter; but this he does not 

 consider well authenticated, and quotes against it 

 the case of one Drake, an exhibitor of snakes, who, 

 having in the summer of 1827, at Kouen, handled a 

 rattlesnake which he took to be dead, while it was 

 only benumbed by the cold, was bitten by it and 



