jg6 On the Metallic Particles 



I exaniined : it was about two feet and a half long, of 2 

 lightifli-brown colour on the back, a white belly, and annu- 

 kted from end to end with 308 abdominal and 46 tail fcuta. 

 I have met with fevcral of them from thirteen inches to near 

 three feet in length : it had two poifonous fangs in the upper 

 jaw, which lay naked, with' their points without the uppcF 

 lip. It does not fprecjd its neck, like the Cobra do Capello, 

 when em-aged ; but is very aftive and quick in its motion. 



I have feen inftances of perfons bitten- by (hakes, who 

 have been fo long without affiftance that, when they have 

 been brought to lue, they have not been aWe to fvvallow,, 

 from convuhions of the throat and fauces, which is, I ol>- 

 ferve, a conftant lymptom of the bke of the Cobra de Ca- 

 pello : and indeed I have had many perfuns brought to me 

 who had been dead fome time ; but never knew an inftance 

 of the volatile cauftic alkali failing in its effeft, where the 

 patient has been able to fwallow it. 



XI V^. On the ]\Letallic Pcrtides- contaifted in the Afoes cj 

 Fcgelubhs. I>>M.De la Metherie*» 



JP ROM obfervations which have been made, there Is no. 

 feafon to doubt that Na;ture never produces any thing new 

 on the one hand, without deconipofing fomething old on the 

 other. The procefs of boiling faltpetre, explained by the- 

 remarks of naturalifts, has (hewn that earth, freed from 

 all falts by lixiviation, as foon as it is heaped up againft new 

 walls expofed to the open atr, becomes again, impregnated- 

 with different new falts: hut thefe, however, have been 

 formed by the experiments of Lavoifier, Thouvcnel, and 

 niyfelf, through the effedls of va-rious artificial kinds of air. 

 The greater part of falts are produced in the fame mannec 

 in organifed bodies ; and thus plants produce vitriolatcd tar- 

 tar, fulphur, nitre, both the fixed alkalies, and perhaps- alfa 



*■ From the Journal Ue Pbj/i'iue, Vo'. XXIII. 



volatile 



