C 193 1 



XXXV. Letter from Dr. Barton to VrofeJJhr Zimmer- 

 man n, on the fajcinailng Facrdty which has been afcribed 

 to the Rattlefnake, and other American Serpents ^. 



I DEAR SIR, rhiladeiphia, Feb. 12, 1800. 



HAVE never yet received the tranflalion which you have 

 made of my ^' Memoir concerning the fafcinating Faculty 

 which has been afcribed to the Rattlefnake, and other Ame- 

 rican Serpents." I feel flattered by your kind notice of that 

 little produ&ion, one of my ^'^'^^ cflays in natural hiftory, 

 and one to which, I confcfs, I devoted a good deal of atten- 

 tion. By transferring my fcntiments on the fubje6l which 

 I have touched into the language of your country, you have, 

 no doubt, contributed to draw the attention of the learned 

 to the difcuffion of the queftion, whether ferpents are endued 

 with the power of fafcinating other animals. 



I did not, before this day, know that our learned friend 

 profelfor Blnmenbach, of Gottingcn, had publifhed fome 

 Remarks on the Memoir, in Voigt's Magazin fur den neu- 

 efen xujiand der Ndtnrhinde, part ii. I have not feen the 

 magazine, but have met with a tranflation of the profelTor's 

 paper in the Philofophical Magazine f, publiflied in London 

 by Mr. Alexander Tilloch. In this letter I am going to 

 trouble you with fome further remarks, which you are at 

 liberty to make ufe of in any way you may think proper. 



I fliall not purfue the profeflor in the precife order of his 

 remarks. I fhall iirft take notice of his aefeuce of that paf- 

 fage in his Manual of Natural Hi(lory|, which T particu- 

 larly examined in my memoir, and which he feems to think 

 •I have criticifed with fomewhat of feverity. The following 

 are Mr. Blumenbach's words, as I have tranflated them in 

 the memoir: — "That fquirrels, fmall birds, &c. voluntarily 

 fall from trees into the jaws of the rattlefnake lying under 

 them, is certainly fjunded in fa6ls : nor is this much to be 

 wondered at, as fimilar phrenomena have been obferved in 

 other fpecics of ferpents, and even in toads, hawks, and in 

 cats, all of which, to appearance, can, under particidar cir- 

 cumftances, entice other fmall animals by mere fteadfaft 

 looks. Here the rattles of this fnake (the rattlefnake) are of 

 peculiar Icrvice J for their hiding noile-cuufes the fquirrels, 



* Coiiimuiiicated by Dr. Barion. f For December 179S. 



* H,ii;tibucl] di r Ts'.Aturgclcliichte. 



VoirXVTN^T^ O whether 



April i803. 



