LESSON 59.] THE SALIVARY GLANDS. 205 



and if he put them into his stomach in that state, there they will 

 remain, for no stomach has the power to destroy the vitality of any 

 thing, as, if it had, assuredly it would destroy and digest itself, a 

 contingency that always happens in death. Nothing is more com- 

 mon, at post-mortem examinations, than to find that a portion of the 

 stomach has actually thus acted upon itself ! 



LESSON LIX. 



THE SALIVAKY GLANDS, CONCLUDED. 



880. To show the universality of this particular chemical prop- 

 erty of destroying life, let us see what takes place amongst the lower 

 animals. Bulk for bulk, weight for weight, can any thing exceed the 

 pain of a Mosquito bite, to say nothing of the long-continued after 

 consequences ? 



881. What gives rise to this extreme suffering ? Surely it can- 

 not be the insertion of its tubular sheath and tiny jaws, because if 

 the flesh were stabbed at the same time with a dozen large stocking 

 needles, the pain would not be nearly so great, and the wound would 

 sooner heal. When a spider bites a fly, why does the insect die 

 instantly, and its body swell up prodigiously ? 



882. If a rattlesnake, or other, so called, poisonous serpent, bite 

 a man, why is the wound almost universally fatal ? 



883. If a Dog, not rabid, bite a man, or if a Cow, Horse, Hog, 

 Raccoon, Fox (and many other animals), do the same thing, or if one 

 man bite another, why, in any, or all these circumstances, should 

 the bitten person be liable to Hydrophobia ? 



884. To these questions, which might be greatly extended, there 

 is but one answer, namely, that the person bitten has been in every 

 instance inoculated with the saliva of the other animal, and that one 

 of its chief properties is to destroy life. 



885. To them, and to us, it is a natural secretion, and so harm- 

 less is it, under some circumstances, that a man may drink any 

 quantity of the poison (saliva) of a Rattlesnake, and it will have 

 none other effect than to help him to digest his food ! But if in- 

 oculated into the circulation of the blood, it becomes a virulent, a 

 fatal poison. 



886. Who can doubt that, if a Mosquito were as large as a good 



