COMMON VIPER. 63 
symptoms are frequently so threatening, that I cannot but 
conclude that in very hot weather, and when not only 
the reptile is in full activity and power, but the constitu- 
tion of the victim in a state of great irritability and dimi- 
nished power, a bite from the Common Viper would very 
probably prove fatal. The remedies usually employed are 
the external application of oil, and the internal adminis- 
tration of ammonia. 
The poisonous fluid is perfectly innocuous when swal- 
lowed. Dr. Mead, and others, have made this experiment, 
and never experienced the slightest ill effects from it. It 
is, however, clear that there would be danger in swallow- 
ing it, were any part of the mouth, the throat, or the 
esophagus, in a state of ulceration, or having an abraded 
surface. 
It will not perhaps be wholly uninteresting to describe 
briefly the very beautiful apparatus* by which the poison 
wounds are inflicted, which render these, and so many 
other Serpents, so formidable. On each side of the upper 
jaw, instead of the outer row of teeth which are found in 
non-venomous Serpents, there exist two or three, or more, 
long, curved, and tubular teeth, the first of which is larger 
than the others, and is attached to a small moveable bone, 
articulated to the maxillary bone, and moved by a mus- 
cular apparatus, by which the animal has the power of 
erecting it. Ina state of rest the fang reclines backwards 
along the margin of the jaw, and is covered by a fold of 
skin; " »when about to be called into use, it is erected 
by means of a small muscle, and brought to stand perpen- 
dicular to the bone. The tooth itself is as it were perfo- 
rated by a tube, the mode of formation of which was not 
understood until it was demonstrated by Mr. Smith in the , 
* See page 64, 
