BITE or rut RATTLE-SNAKF. 113 
Of the many travellers who have vifited the countries 
of North-America, there are very few, indeed, who have 
not recorded in their journals at leaft one or two fpecificks 
againft the bites of ferpents. M. le Page du Pratz, who, 
in fome refpects, is a judicious writer, ferioufly informs 
us that the RatTie-Snaxke “ fhuns the habitations of 
** men, and by a fingular providence, wherever it retires 
“to, there the herb which cures its bite, is likewife to be 
“ found*.”” Had this gentleman obferved that wherever 
the animal, of which we are {peaking, retires, we find 
vegetables which the full credulity of the Americans has 
led them to imagine are antidotes to its bite, he would not 
have expofed himfelf to the imputation of credulity with 
thofe who are more intimately acquainted with the works 
of nature, or with the powers of medicines. But the 
truth is, that there is no branch of natural hiftory in the 
inveftigation of which even men of f{cience have more pro- 
minently difcovered their ignorance and weaknefs than in 
that of the ferpents. Here, even a Linneus, forgetting 
the cautious dignity which became the character of him 
who was deftined to reform the {cience of nature, ferioufly 
relates thofe tales which ought to have been confined to 
the wigwaum of the favage, or to the cabin of the 
moft uninformed hunter. 
To this account of what I deem to be the mof effefual 
means of preventing the deleterious confequences of the bite 
of the Croratus Horripus, or RATTLE-SNAKE, I 
fhall fubjoin a catalogue of a number of vegetables which 
have been recommended for the fame purpofe, either by 
the Indians, or by the white inhabitants of our continent. 
{n enumerating thefe vegetables, I have thoughtit proper to 
give both the Linnzan, or claffical, and the Englith, or vul- 
gar, names. Some of thefe reputed fpecificks are ufed inter= 
nally, others are employed externally, whilft others, again, 
VOL: TE: P are 
* ‘The Hiftory of Louifiana, &c. p. 269. English Trandlations 
