Air-tight Vessel.—Serpents. 233 
AIR-TIGHT VESSEL, 
. To Mr. Tilloch. 
Sir,—Being but just returned from a journey through South 
Wales, I have had no opportunity of seeing the last number of your 
‘Magazine for April, in which my paper on the Extinction of Fires 
‘appears. Speaking of this paper you say: The author also 
suggests that ships might be rendered more buoyant by making 
them air-tight, and forcing in air by means of an air-pump, 
which would elevate them to a higher level in the water, and 
consequently might sometimes save them when they have got 
‘upon a bank.” 
Now by this you appear to have quite misunderstood me, for 
which reason I shall feel obliged if you will have the goodness in 
‘your next to state, that the object of my plan was to keep a ship 
afloat that would otherwise very soon siuk, by confining the air 
she then has within her, or if necessary injecting more; by which 
means the influx of water would be stopped, and the ship, car= 
go, and many valuable lives might be saved. I am, &c. 
Bristol, 25th May. Joun Moore. 
P.S. For burnt lime’read lime, in the last line of page 287. 
SERPENTS. 
The following memoir on the subject of the fascinating power 
of serpents, by Major Alexander Garden, of South Carolina, was 
read at a meeting of the New York Historical Society in Sep- 
tember last. 
“‘ He attributed the outed to an effuvium which the 
serpent voluntarily exhales at those times when it feels the desire 
_of food, and the effluvium is of so deleterious a nature as to cause 
convulsions in the smaller and more sensitive animals, such as 
birds, mice, &c. He mentioned several instances in which men 
had been powerfully affected by this efluvium. He had been 
informed by the late Col. Thompson, of Belleville, that whilst 
riding over his estate, he came to a snake of enormous size, at 
which, the moment he could sufficiently collect himself, he fired. 
He killed the reptile, but was at the same instant assailed by an 
overpowering vapour, which so bewildered him that he could 
scarcely guide his horse home—that.a deadly sickness at the 
stomach ensued, and a puking more violent than he had ever ex- 
perienced from an emetic. He had been told by a lady, that 
the overseer of one of her plantations being missed, was sought 
for by his family, and found in a state of insensibility. On re- 
covering, he stated that he was watching for a deer, when.he 
heard the rattle of a snake, and that before he could remove 
from the threatened danger, he perceived a sickening efluvium, 
which 
