274 Uvularia perfoliata as a remedy for Poisoned Wounds. 
powers of nature, the facts which have occurred or been commu- 
nicated to me, tend strongly to prove the correctness of the posi- 
tion, that death rarely, if ever, takes place from the direst effects 
of the bite in human adults. Thus, that which is ascertained by 
Fontana with so much labor in regard to the viper, and rendered 
so probable by Russell, as to the cobra de capello and other cele- 
brated Indian serpents, seems likely. to be also established in re- 
gard to our rattlesnakes. 'This would hardly have been expected 
from a comparison made by the last named author, who states 
that a rattlesnake in London killed a dog in two minutes; while 
the shortest period of time in which Dr. R. was able to produce 
that effect by his strongest cobras, was-thirteen minutes, or a pe- 
riod six and a half times as long. Of our ten or twelve venomous 
serpents, it seems generally conceded, that the most powerful are 
the different species of Crotalus. Of these, Dr. M’Connell, of 
Mauch Chunk, communicated to me eleven years since, that he 
had then attended no less than seventeen bites ; not one of which 
had proved fatal. Since that period, the Crotali have become less 
_ humerous in the vicinity, from the increase of population. Dr. 
M’C.-has however, within his momentary recollection, seen three 
or four more, and has never seen a death. Similar results were 
met with at Pottsville, by Dr. Halberstadt; and the popular re- 
collections I heard came to the same account, with the exception 
of one statement, of which I did not learn the details, that a man 
had some time previously died in two minutes, of a bite. Most 
probably, in this last case, the poison was instilled into a vein. I 
observe, that Mr. Daudin alledges that this venom is extremely for- 
midable in the south, but that its terrors are singularly exaggera- 
ted in the north. -That the exaggeration may also be found in 
another latitude, may be alledged upon the authority of our dis- 
tinguished countryman, Dr. Holbrook; as whose opinion T am 
authorized to state, that the poison of the rattlesnake is mortal to 
animals of the size of its prey; but very rarely, if ever, to man. 
by observations so extensive as those of the gentlemen I have 
named, the addition of two more cases could only be worth ma- 
king, from a desire to enlarge as far as possible the number of 
cases from which inferences are to be drawn. I have seen two 
such out of Philadelphia,* and both recovered. 
- 
* After the above had been read to the Academy, William Hembel, Esq., fa- 
vored me ‘iret he oe be = Pad ; ee st, that, : g t% 2A fam two 
