BITE or tne RATTLE-SNAKE. tor 
tick in medical matters, I might have doubted either the 
veracity of my informers, or the accuracy with which 
their experiments and obfervations were made. It, cer-= 
tainly, did not require a very extenfive acquaintance with 
botanical or with medical fcience to difcover, that thefe 
reputed {pecificks were frequently pofleffed of proporties 
the moft oppofite; and, confequently, that the effects of 
the poifon of our venemous ferpents, which are fo uni- 
form in their appearance, were capable of being obviated 
or removed, by a number of vegetables, perhaps no lefs- 
different in their influence on animal bodies than they are: 
in family, and in fpecies. I might have doubted, tor a 
moment, whether the activity of thefe poifons was fo 
great, and the effects of their operation fo dangerous and 
foiatal, as has been generally imagined. I was not ig- 
norant that in the feafons of fupervening languor and tor=- 
pidity the RAaTTLE-SNAKE, in particular, bites with feem- 
ing reluctance, and without any, or with but little, ill con= 
fequence ariling from the wound. _J, likewife, well knew, 
that even in thofe feafons when.the fun powerfully exerts- 
its influence, at which times thefe animals are be quali- 
fied to ftrike and to injure, individuals of the fpecies muft- 
often be found, the cavities of whofe venemous fangs are 
entirely, or nearly, deftitute of their ative poifon, from: 
the introduction of which into the body, thofe alarming 
fymptoms, which charaéterife the fuccefsful bite of this 
animal arifet. I couldimagine that, in fome inftances, the 
poifon: 
+ Several years fince, a gentlemen made the following experiments in Philadelphia. He 
hada large Rarrie-Snake brought to him alive, which he fo managed by a ftring that he 
could eafily lead it into, or out of, a clofe cage. On the firft day, he fuftered this Snake to bite 
a.chickea, which had been aliured to the mouth of the cage by crumbs of bread. Ina few 
hours, the bird ‘* mortified” and died. On the fecond day, another chicken. was bitten in the 
fame manner, and furvived the injury much longer than the firft, On the third day, the ex- 
periment was made upon athird chicken, which {welled much, but, neverthelefs, recovered. 
On the fourth day, feveral chickens were fuffered to be bitten, without receiving any injury. 
After this, itisfaid, the Snake grew larger and fatter. JZ. S. by my father, penes me. The- 
truth of thefe experiments feems to be confirmed by the original” and very. well-written ac- 
count of the fecond volume of the Count de la Cepede’s Hifoirenaturelle des Serpens, Ge. ee: 
uhed 
