THE VIPER, OR ADDER. g9 



died in the course of nine hours. From a consider- 

 able number of observations, Dr. Gruyon concludes 

 that the intensity or power of the venom is less 

 owing to difference of season than to the length of 

 time it has been accumulating in the reservior of 

 the reptile; and the greatest accumulation neces- 

 sarily occurs during winter, because the animal is in 

 a torpid state and does not take any food during that 

 season. So it was in the case of Drake, and so Dr. 

 Gruyon found it in that of a horned viper which had 

 been given to him at the caravanserai of Sidi- 

 Makhlouf, Algeria. This reptile had been put into 

 a bottle, which had since remained hermetically 

 closed. It had been in there for six weeks, without 

 food and without air, and looked quite dead, since it 

 could not stir in the bottle, which it tilled entirely. 

 And yet, on opening the bottle, the doctor found 

 the reptile perfectly sound, and saw it kill a large 

 fowl instantaneously with its sting. Our author 

 quotes another case, that of a scorpion, that had 

 been kept in a bottle for a long time, and on being 

 released killed two sparrows in less than a minute, 

 and a pigeon in three hours. 



A circumstance has come to our knowledge which 

 occurred in Warwickshire, of a boy that was bitten 

 by a viper during the winter : — 



The 19th of January, 1864, was an unusually warm and sunny 

 day for the time of year. A boy, aged 11 jears, started for a 



