THE SERPENT. 



421 



Such are the effects of the viper's bite ; yet 

 its flesh has long been celebrated as a noble 

 medicine. A broth, made by boiling one 

 viper in a quart of water till it comes to a 

 pint, is the usual method in which it is given 

 at present ; and it is said to be a very power- 

 ful restorative in battered constitutions ; the 

 salt of vipers is also thought to exceed any 

 other animal salt whatever, in giving vigour 

 to the languid circulation, and prompting to 

 venery. 



The Rattle-snake is bred in America, and 

 in no part of the old world. Some are as 

 thick as a man's leg, and six feet in length ; 

 but the most usual size is from four to five 

 feet long. In most particulars it resembles 

 the viper; like that animal having a large 

 head and a small neck, being of a dusky 

 colour, and furnished with fangs- that inflict 

 the most terrible wounds. It differs, however, 

 in having a large scale, which hangs like a 

 pent-house over each eye. The eye also is 

 furnished with a nictitating membrane, that 

 preserves it from dust ; and its scales are of a 

 considerable degree of hardness. They are 

 of an orange, tawny, and blackish colour on 

 the back ; and of an ash-colour on the belly, 

 inclining to lead. The male may be readily 

 distinguished from the female, by a black 

 velvet spot on the head, and by the head being 

 smaller and longer. But that which, besides 

 their superior malignity, distinguishes them 



the disposition of the parts will permit, to fix a ligature 

 above the wounded place, and not to tighten it too much, 

 for fear of giving rise to mortification. Immediately 

 after, a cupping-glass is applied on the wound, the parts 

 adjacent being first scarified, and this mode, highly 

 praised by Celsus, has very recently been attended with 

 happy results in the hands of Messrs Mangili, Barry, and 

 Bouillaud. This method, from analogy, affords an addi- 

 tional recommendation to employ the plan of suction, 

 which has received the further confirmation of profes- 

 sional experiments tried by a number of physiologists and 

 physicians. When the cupping-glass has performed its 

 office, the lips of the wound, already scarified, should be 

 cauterized deeply and extensively. This should be done 

 with a red -hot iron, chlorine of antimony, or concreted 

 potassium. A variety of different substances, taken in- 

 ternally, has been lauded from time to time as efficacious 

 against the bite of the viper. Sudorifics have been espe- 

 cially recommended, and among them the flesh of the 

 lizard, of the coluber, and the viper itself, have been 

 preferred, in consequence of the great quantity of am. 

 monia which it has been ascertained to contain. An 

 alexipharmic virtue of the same kind has been also attri- 

 buted to theriaca and other analogous electuaries. 



The Cherscea (Swedish viper, Shaw) is common in the 

 environs of Upsal, in Sweden: also in Smaland, Scania, 

 and Pomerania, where it retires into thickets, under 

 hedges, and to the foot of tufted trees. It is sometimes 

 seen in Prussia, Poland, Denmark, and in the Pyrenees. 

 In Sweden it is known under the name of oespinff, which 

 seems evidently a corruption of aspic, and it has been 

 sometimes called the red tiper. It is erroneously loca- 

 ted by Linnaeus, Wolf, and Laurenti, in the genus colu- 

 ber. Its resemblance- to the common viper is very strik- 

 ing. The chersaja of Sweden is a small reptile, about 



from all other animals, is their rattle, an in- 

 strument lodged in their tail, by which they 

 make such a loud rattling noise, when they 

 move, that their approach may readily be per. 

 ceived, and the danger avoided. This rattle, 

 which is placed in the tail, somewhat resem- 

 bles, when taken out of the body, the curb- 

 chain of a bridle : it is composed of several 

 thin, hard, hollow bones, linked to each other, 

 and rattling upon the slightest motion. It is 

 supposed by some that the snake acquires an 

 additional bone every year ; and that, from 

 hence, its age may be precisely known : how- 

 ever this may be, certain it is, that the young 

 snakes, of a year or two old, have no rattles 

 at all : while many old ones have been killed, 

 that had from eleven to thirteen joints each. 

 They shake and make a noise with these rattles 

 with prodigious quickness, when they are 

 disturbed : however, the peccary and the 

 vulture are no way terrified at the sound, but 

 hasten, at the signal, to seize the snake, as 

 their most favourite prey. 



It is very different with almost every other 

 animal. The certain death which ensues from 

 this terrible creature's bite, makes a solitude 

 wherever it is heard. It moves along with 

 the most majestic rapidity ; * neither seeking 

 to offend the larger animals, nor fearing their 

 insults. If unprovoked, it never meddles 

 with any thing but its natural prey ; but 

 when accidentally trod upon, or pursued to be 



six inches long, and as thick as one's little finger. That 

 of Switzerland and France differs from it much both in 

 size and number of plates. Herpetologists, however, ad- 

 mit the identity of these animals, and make but one spe- 

 cies of them. Be this as it may, the Swedish viper is a 

 reptile of the most dangerous kind. Its bite is often mortal, 

 and its deleterious effects are manifested with greater ra- 

 pidity than those which follow from the bite of the com- 

 mon viper. 



The Ammodytes is a native of all the south of Europe. 

 It is found in Dauphine, and in the neighbourhood of 

 Lyons in France, and in the east of Europe, in the 

 mountains of Illyria. It habitually frequents the rocks 

 which border on the Danube, the neighbourhood of the 

 city of Gorice and the Japidian mountains. This reptile 

 passes the winter concealed in clefts and crevices of rocks, 

 from which it issues forth when the warmer rays of the 

 sun announce the return of spring. Then it casts its 

 skin, and the time of reproduction begins. Its habitual 

 food differs in nothing from that of the common viper, 

 and its bite is not less dangerous. 



The Cerastes has received its name from the Greek 

 word xii>ets t in consequence of the eminences which sur- 

 round its eyes, and which, from the most ancient times, 

 have been erroneously compared to the horns of mammi- 

 fercus animals. Shunning humid and marshy situations, 

 it is found only in the burning and arid sands of Egypt, 

 Arabia, and Syria sands in which it remains concealed 

 during the entire day, and notwithstanding its great agi- 

 lity, it waits patiently until some victim presents itself to 

 its insatiable voracity. It sometimes in this way gets 

 possession of the jerboa, whose hole, according to Bruoo, 

 is very often contiguous to its own. 



1 This is an error: the movements of the rattle-snake 

 are extremely sluggish. 



