Royal Society. 117 
came blind again as formerly : In July 1(^93, ilie was feized 
with a fever, when her {ight again returned, and continued for 
about a month, and then left her as formerly , fb that now in 
October 1593 ^^'^ ^^^'^ ^^^ nofturnal blindnefs, and the jaundice 
likewife continues. 
Obfervations on feveral Poilbns^ by Sir Theodore Mayerne. 
Phil. Tranf. N° 211. p. i6z. 
TH E venom of a viper in itfelf is not mortal to a robuil and 
found body, and tho' very unhappy and mifchievous acci- 
dents attend it, as a great tumour, teniion, and weight of the 
part, humidity and variety of colour, phrenfies, convullions and 
vomitings, yet in 8 or 10 days at moft thele fymptoms are over 5 
and altho' the patient may be very ill, yet he recovers again; 
whilft the poifon having run thro' divers parts of the body, at lafl 
throws itfelf into the Scrotum, caufcs a great heat and quantity of 
urine, very hot and fliarp, by which the poifon is difcharged • this 
evacuation being the ordinary and mod certain crifis of the dil- 
eafe : It is obfervable, that perfpiration being obftrufied by 
the poifon, a man bit by a viper, and fwelled up, in three or 
four days will weigh almoft as much more than he did before ; a 
fickly perfon, under an ill habit of body, or fearful, infallibly 
dies by this venom, and that in a fliort time, if not fpeedily re~ 
lieved 5 in the extreme nervous parts near the pulie and tongue, 
the bite is dangerous, and the fymptoms very painful 5 fre/li 
vipers, that have not bit, but have the bladders of the gums full 
of poifon, are the moft mifchievous- wherefore mountebanks, to 
impofe on the people, either make their vipers bite before they 
bring them out, or, with a needle fcratch the gums, and fqueeze 
out the poifon. The remedy for thefe great and painful Iwel- 
lings IS, to drink the deco6tion of Marrubium, or the powder 
taken internally, and to make a fomentation with the deco(5tion • 
applying a cataplalm, made with Marrublimy tapfus barbatus 
and Acrimony, on the place 5 /Iriftolochia is alfo a ftrong and 
powerful antidote againft the viper; fo that if one be bit on the 
tongue, he need only take a (lice of this root, heat it, and apply 
ir, and it makes a cure, ^ontddus, a chemical mountebank, from 
whom Sir Theodore had the abovementioned obfervations, had 
compofed his antidote, of extra6i of juniper-berries drawn with a 
deco6Hunof vootsoi rouud Ariftolochiay o^ Succifa, Marrubium 
album, flowers of brimftone and of white vitriol; for poifons 
not corroiive, fuch as thole of animals and vegetables, and even 
for 
