166 Miscellaneous Facts and Observations. 



N. B. Live Lobsters may likewise be very well 

 preserved, for several days, upon coal. 



39. Permit me to offer some observations on your 

 ideas (relative to the Fascinating Faculty which has 

 been ascribed to Serpents), which seem, like the egg 

 of Columbus, difficult to find, but when found so 

 clear, that one can hardly conceive how they could 

 have remained latent, for so long a time. 



That snakes, however, under certain circumstan- 

 ces, do emit a fetid vapour, I have myself observed. 

 Having caught a Snake (Coluber Natrix), which is 

 entirely innoxious, we hunted him with a young 

 dog, and frequently urged on the dog, which 

 seemed much affrighted. At length, the snake 

 grew very angry, hissed at the dog, and emitted such 

 a fetid and narcotic smell, that the whole room was 

 impregnated with it. I found the same smell in the 

 smegma of the two sacs, which run from the anus to 

 the beginning of the tail. The use of these sacs is 

 quite unknown to me. They seem to have much 

 resemblance to the sacs of many of the mammalia, in 

 which we find them between the anus and the geni- 

 tals. 



Professor Autenrieth. 

 Letter, dated Tubingen, in Wirtemberg, 

 October 1th, 1797. 



