32 OUR REPTILES. 



physiologists, if not by all, that there is no sound 

 physiological reason against such an occurrence; 

 and, until we are convinced by better arguments 

 than hive hitherto been advanced, we are bound 

 to admit that in " our inmost hearts " there lurks a 

 balief that the maternal viper has a knack of swal- 

 lowing its young. Whether our scientific friends 

 consider us renegade from the true faith or not, we 

 will at least be true to ourselves, 



Vipers were formerly held in some estimation as 

 a medicine ; Pliny, Gralen, and others extolled their 

 flesh for the cure of ulcers. Very recently, in the 

 French tariff, they were subject to a duty of four 

 shillings per pound. In Italy, a stew or jelly of 

 vipers is said to be regarded as a luxury. 



The poison of vipers still appears to have some 

 reputation amongst medical men practising in the 

 East. Dr. Honinberger, late physician to the 

 Court at Lahore, seems to have had faith in it 

 for " rambling in the bowels." He thus details the 

 manner in which he procured the virus, which 

 on one occasion was obtained from the Aspis 

 Naja : — 



Tha man who brought the serpents to me, having wrapped 

 his hand in a cloth, took them by the back of the neck, and, 

 with a small stick, forced open the mouth, when, by means 

 of a pair of forceps, I held a small lump of sugar under the 

 t )oth, above which is the bladder containing the poison ; 

 and, on his pressing the bladder with the stick, a drop of 



