THE SERPENT KIND. 



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place be proper to describe its seat in the ani- 

 mal, as also the instrument by which the 

 wound is made, and the poison injected. In 

 all this venomous class of reptiles, whether the 

 viper, the rattlesnake, or the cobra di capello, 

 there are two large teeth or fangs that issue 

 from (he upper jaw, and that hang out beyond 

 the lower. The rest of the snake tribe are 

 destitute of these ; and it is most probable that 

 wherever these fangs are wanting, the animal 

 is harmless ; on the contrary, wherever they 

 are found it is to be avoided as the most pesti- 

 lent enemy, These are the instruments that 

 seem to place the true distinction between ani- 

 mals of the serpent kind ; the wounds which 

 these fangs inflict produce the most dangerous 

 symptoms ; the wounds inflicted by the teeth 

 only are attended with nothing more than the 

 ordinary consequences attending the bite of 

 any other animal. Our first great attention, 

 therefore, upon seeing a serpent, should be 

 directed to the teeth. If it has the fang teeth, 

 it is to be placed among the venomous class ; 

 if it wants them, it may be set down as inoffen- 

 sive. I am not ignorant that many serpents 

 are said to be dangerous whose jaws are un- 

 furnished with fangs ; but it is most probable 

 that our terrors only have furnished these ani- 

 mals with venom ; for of all the tribe whose 

 teeth arc thus formed, not one will be found 

 to have a bag for containing poison, nor a 

 conduit for injecting it into the wound. Tho 

 Black Snake, the Liboya, the Blind Worm, 

 and a hundred others that might be mention- 

 ed, have their teeth of an equal size, fixed into 

 the jaws, and with no other apparatus for in- 

 flicting a dangerous wound than a dog or a 

 lizard ; but it is otherwise with the venomous 

 tribe we are now describing ; these are well 

 furnished, not only with an elaboratory where 

 the poison is formed, but a canal by which it 

 is conducted to the jaw, a bag under the tooth 

 for keeping it ready for every occasion, and 

 also an aperture in the tooth itself for injecting 

 it into the wound. To be more particular, 

 the glands that serve to fabricate this venom- 

 ous fluid are situated on each side of the head 

 behind the eyes, and have their canals leading 

 from thence to the bottom of the fangs in the 

 upper jaw, where they empty into a kind of 

 bladder, from whence the fangs on each side 

 are seen to grow. The venom contained in 

 this bladder is a yellowish thick tasteless 



liquor, which injected into the blood is death, 

 yet which may be swallowed without any dan- 

 ger. 



The fangs that give the wound come next 

 under observation ; they are large in propor- 

 tion to the size of the animal that bears them ; 

 crooked, yet sharp enough to inflict a m.dy 

 wound. They grow one on each side, ami 

 sometimes two, from two movcable bones in 

 the upper jaw, which by sliding backward or 

 forward, have a power of erecting or repress- 

 ing the teeth at pleasure. In these hones are 

 a : so fixed many teeth, but no wny venoicovs, 

 and only serving to take and hold (he ariir.oPs 

 prey. Besides this apt disposition of the fargs, 

 they are hollow within, and have an opening 

 towards the point like the slit of a pen, through 

 which, when the fang is pressed down upon 

 the bladder where it grows, there is seen to 

 issue a part of the venom that lay below. To 

 describe this operation at once, when the ser- 

 pent is irritated to give a venomous wound, it 

 opens its formidable jaws to the widest extent ; 

 the rnoveable bones of the upper jaw slide for- 

 ward ; the fangs that lay before inclining are 

 thus erected ; they are struck with force into 

 the flesh of the obnoxious person ; by meeting 

 resistance at the points, they press upon the 

 bladders of venom from whence they grow ; 

 the venom issues tip through the hollow of the 

 tooth, and is pressed out through its slit into 

 the wound, which by this time the tooth has 

 made in the skin. Thus from a slight punc- 

 ture, and the infusion of a drop of venom 

 scarce larger than the head of a pin, the part 

 is quickly inflamed, and, without a proper 

 antidote, the whole frame contaminated. 



The appearances which this venom produces 

 are different, according to the serpent that 

 wounds, or the season, or the strength of the 

 animal that strikes the blow. If a viper in- 

 flicts the wound, and the remedy be neglected, 

 the symptoms are not ithout danger It first 

 causes an acute pain in the place affected, at- 

 tended with a swelling, first red, and after- 

 wards livid. This by degrees spreads to the 

 neighbouring parts; great faintness and a 

 quick, though low and interrupted, pulse 

 ensues : to this succeed great sickness at the 

 stomach, bilious and convulsive vomitings, cold 

 sweats, pains about the navel, and death itself. 

 But the violence of the symptoms depend much 

 on the season of the year, the difference of 

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