Kaiiiral Hintorij. 01 



nued still for three leagues round ^tna, from tlie barnln<^ 

 materials thrown up by this mountain. No cartliquakes 

 had been e.xperieueed ; but a subterraneous sound, like 

 thunder, was heard all over Sicily, particularly at and near 

 Messina. 



NATURAL HISTORY. 



The accounts given of the subtility of the venom of tlie 

 viper have lately been confirmed in the forest of Fontain- 

 bleau. The dog of a hunter, wliich v/as bitten in the nose, 

 died in less than ten minutes, A woman wlio had returned, 

 with a bundle of sticks which she had picked up in the 

 forest, having thrown it on the ground, a viper concealed 

 in it creptout and bit the woman's child, which died in the 

 course of the day. A robust peasant was also bitten ; and 

 though those remedies which are esteemed most efficacious 

 in such cases were speedily employed, he died two days 

 after. This species, it is said, is no where described, and 

 several naturalists are now employed in examining it. The 

 magistrates of the place have taken proper measures to ex- 

 terminate this race; a premium of sixty franks is given to 

 every person who kills one of them. 



Brugnatelli, in his Annals of Chemistry and Natiu-a! 

 Historv, mentions the two following facts comnmnicated 

 by Dr. Corradori, of Prato, in Tuscauv : 



A nest of mice being found on a farm belonging to siafnor 

 Martini, at a little distance from Prato; the young ones 

 were carried to a domestic cat which had just brout^ht 

 forth, and was still suckling her young. Tlie cat devoured 

 then) all except one, which she placed near her kittens, and 

 which she suckled along with them. Corradori does not as- 

 sert that he himself saw this extraordinary instance of at- 

 tachment, because the mouse had died some hours before he 

 arrived at the spot ; but the truth of it was attested bv the 

 owners of thecal, and by eye-witnesses. Thev added that 

 the mouse, faithful to its instinct, removed from tlic cat, 

 and endeavoured to avoid he- caresses : the cat, however, 

 went after it and carried it back to her young. One night, 

 tlie cat having gone out of the house, the mouse, in conse- 

 f]ueiice of its being deprived of ahment for several hours, 

 was found dead. This fact seems to give a great degree of 

 probability to what the antients so confidently relate in re- 

 g^trd to children tuckled by wild animals. 



The other fact i« that of a serpent with two heads, wliich 

 Corradori saw alive and examined. U was young and in 



sood 



