ii8 MEMOIRSo/fl)f 
for the p],ig^ue itlelf, which he imagined he could cure by the 
fame remedy, he made ule of no vitriol 5 but if the poifon was 
fublimate, which of itfcif excites vomiting, he added vitriol ; 
not in a proportion to vomit, as a drachm, but only a fcruple, or 
half a drachm, the vomiting being affifted by the corrofive poi- 
Ibn itfelf: To encreafe the value of this antidote with the people, 
when the experiment was made on dogs, ^ontdeus gave that dog 
which was to die of the bite of the viper together with the anti- 
<!ote a quarter of a Nii^ vomica^ not powdered but only cut in 
bits, and the next day the dog would die 5 if it were powdered 
the dog would ^aq. in half an hour^ and he faid, Nux vomica ne- 
ver vomits but ihuts up the ftomach, and contra6ts the nerves by 
its poifon 5 to preferve the dogs alive, you mull: give them with 
the antidote or any thing elfe, three or four grains of fublimate, 
which immediately fets them a vomiting, and lo faves them alive 5 
he much efteemcd ATorfus2)iaboli^ Siiccifa^ or devil's bit, againffc 
all forts of poiibns, efpecially the plague 5 a toad, he faid, had 
no poiibn, any more than a frog. 
The manner of the a61:ion of the viper's poifon is thus ; in 
^bout I of an hour, a lyncope or fwooning feizes the patient with 
trembling, and convulnons, tingling of the ears, and frequently 
deafhels for a moment; next, as it were, a whitifh mift aj^pears 
before his eyes, which foon vanifhes 5 the part, that is bit, Iwells, 
at firft as big as a pea, after that it grows as big as a bean or a nut, 
and encreafing, it fpreads over the neighbouring parts to a very 
conilderable tumour and teniion of the fiefh, which grows oede- 
matous, and by little and little falls into the Scrotum., and leaves 
the part black, blue and yellowy it makes as it were bags in the 
fkin, which feel heavy when you walk, as if fluffed with quick- 
iilver^ ule what means you will, the poiibn will have its courfe, 
and it is ufually three days before it comes to its height, and it is as 
iong abating 5 ^ontdsus. affirms, that the gall of the viper is not 
poiibnous, and that all the poifon is in the liquor in the gums, 
which i'? yellow like oil ^ the viper is the mofl venomous of fer- 
pents, the afp is but a ipecics of the viper; Napellus is a very 
dangerous pcilbn, a6ing by its acrimony, but you muft take a 
^rcat quantity of it, it burns the throat like alum 3 opium is the 
moH miichievous of all poiibns. 
The 
