COMMON VIPER. 63 



symptoms are frequently so threatening, that I cannot but 

 conclude that in very hot weather, and when not only 

 the reptile is in full activity and power, but the constitu- 

 tion of the victim in a state of great irritability and dimi- 

 nished power, a bite from the Common Viper would very 

 probably prove fatal. The remedies usually employed are 

 the external application of oil, and the internal adminis- 

 tration of ammonia. 



The poisonous fluid is perfectly innocuous when swal- 

 lowed. Dr. Mead, and others, have made this experiment, 

 and never experienced the slightest ill effects from it. It 

 is, however, clear that there would be danger in swallow- 

 ing it, were any part of the mouth, the throat, or the 

 O3sophagus, in a state of ulceration, or having an abraded 

 surface. 



It will not perhaps be wholly uninteresting to describe 

 briefly the very beautiful apparatus* by which the poison 

 wounds are inflicted, which render these; and so many 

 other Serpents, so formidable. On each side of the upper 

 jaw, instead of the outer row of teeth which are found in 

 non- venomous Serpents, there exist two or three, or more, 

 long, curved, and tubular teeth, the first of which is larger 

 than the others, and is attached to a small moveable bone, 

 articulated to the maxillary bone, and moved by a mus- 

 cular apparatus, by which the animal has the power of 

 erecting it. In a state of rest the fang reclines backwards 

 along the margin of the jaw, and is covered by a fold of 

 skin ; but when about to be called into use, it is erected 

 by means of a small muscle, and brought to stand perpen- 

 dicular to the bone. The tooth itself is as it were perfo- 

 rated by a tube, the mode of formation of which was not 

 understood until it was demonstrated by Mr. Smith in the 



* See page 64. 



