74 Of THE FASCINATING FACULTY 



N°. XI. 



A Memoir eonccming the Fafcinating Faculty which has 

 been cifcribed to the Rattle-Snake, and other Ameriean 

 Serpents. By Benjamin Smith Barton, M. D.* 



FlDEM NON ABSTULIT ERROR. 



Read April "XT ATUR ALISTS have not always been phi- 

 4. 1794- X tI lofophers. The flight and fuperficial man- 

 ner in which they have examined many of the fubje£ts 

 of their fcience ; the creduUty which has accompanied 

 them in their refearches after truth, and the precipitancy 

 with which they have decided upon many queftions of 

 importance, are proofs of this afl^ertion. 



There is a queftionin natural hiftory that has, in an 

 efpecial manner, folicited from me thefe obfervations. 

 I mean the quclHon concerning the Fascinating Fa- 

 culty, which has been afcribed to different kinds of 

 American ferpents. It is my intention to examine this 

 queftion, in the memoir which I now prefent to the Phi- 

 lofophical Society. 



Of this fafcinating faculty we have all heard and read. 

 In many of our country fituations, there is hardly a man 

 or a woman, who will not, when the fubjed; comes to 



* Since this memoir was read before the Society, it has been confide- 

 rably altered, and fomewhat enlarged. I hope, the alterations will render 

 it more worthy of the notice of thofe who, like myfelf, derive pleafure and 

 happinefs from the contemplation of the works and operations of nature, 

 on this globe. 



• I fear, I fhall be thought to have treated the queftion in too diffufive a 

 manner. I have not, indeed, laboured to be concife. But if the memoir 

 is more extenfive than was necelfary, I flatter myfelf, it will be admitted 

 that it, at leaft, contains fome new and interefting fafts. I fubmit it to 

 its fate. 



be 



