ASCRIBED TO THE RATTLE-SNAKE, &c. 95 



cbnfidering. I fhall arrange my chiefeft objedions under 

 two heads. 



Firft. We are pretty well acquainted with the mod 

 prominent effeds produced by the poifon of the rattle- 

 Inake, in various I'pecies of animals. It muft be admit- 

 ted, that there is a confiderable variety in thefe effects, 

 and a great difference in the ftrength of thefe effects. 

 In one animal, the poifon produces an high degree of 

 inflammatory a£lion in the fyflem ; in another, the moft 

 ftriking primaiy effeft is a fomnolency, or drowfmefs. 

 In one animal, the poifon does not produce any obvious 

 effe£l upon the fyftem for many minutes; in another 

 the effedis are almofl inftantaneous *. But in almoft 

 every inffance in which the poifon of the rattle-fnake 

 has been fuccefsfully thrown into the body of an animal, 

 there enfue a fet of fymptoms, very different from the 

 actions of birds and fquirrels when under the fuppofed 

 fafcinating influence of the ferpent-kind. It is not ne- 

 ceflary to detail, in this place, thefe various fymptoms, 

 becaufe I have already done it in a paper which is printed 

 in the thijd volume of the Traiipi&ions of our Society -f-, 

 and becaufe thefe fymptoms cannot be unknown to the 

 members of the Society. It will be fuflicient to obferve, 

 that two of the moft univerfal effedls of the poifon of the 

 rattle-fnake, I mean the extreme debility and the giddi- 

 nefs, which commonly almoft immediately fucceed the 

 bite, will preclude the poflibility of a fquirrel's, or a 

 bird's, dancing from branch to branch, flying about, and 

 running to and from the ferpent, for a confiderable time, 

 before it becomes a prey to its enem.y. Befides, the farce 

 of fafcination is often kept up for a much longer term of 



* A fmall dog that was bitten in the fide by a large rattle-fnake, reeled 

 about, and expired, feemingly fufFocated, in two minutes. This was in 

 the month of Auguft. 



f No. xi. p. no & II I. 



N 2 time 



