234 LEAVES FROM THE 



before he is aware of the presence of the reptile ; and so 

 does his dog, unless he is shooting with a pointer, which, 

 if he have a good nose and the wind, will infallibly stand 

 as stiff as a crutch, and as if he had a whole covey be- 

 fore him. 



The ink that traced the last sentence on the paper 

 was hardly dry when in came a friend, who related that 

 two of his dogs, pointers, had been bitten by a viper, that 

 lay coiled up in the grass by the banks of a canal near 

 the house in which I write. The serpent struck twice, 

 and each time bit the dog attacked on the lip. The dog 

 first struck — a very fine pointer, with a dash of the 

 bloodhound in him — staggered, was frightfully swollen, 

 and his system so much affected that fears were enter- 

 tained for his life. Copious doses of oil, and embroca- 

 tions of the same with laudanum, however, effected the 

 cure. The mother of this dog received the second bite, 

 but in her case the symptoms were much mitigated : 

 there was no staggering, and, as is usual in such cases, 

 the virus must have been much diminished before the 

 second wound was given. The viper, on this occasion, 

 corroborated the statements of those who lay it down as 

 an axiom, that the true vipers, unlike other venomous 

 serpents — the cobra, for instance — do not quit the scene 

 of action after their murderous attacks. There it re- 

 mained, and the master of the dogs took up a great stone 

 and cast it upon the viper, without, however, crippling 

 it, owing, probably, to some inequality in the surface of 

 the ground whereon it rested. Then, but not till then, 

 it made off The owner of the dogs told me, that when 

 they were bitten they uttered no cry. In general, dogs 

 howl piteously when they feel the bite. 



In this case we have again an instance of the virtues 

 of oil, insisted on in a former chapter. Cato's remedy 

 was not so simple, for he says (c. 102), that if a serpent 

 has stung an ox or any other quadruped, one must pound 



