COMMON VIPER. 371 



arrows, the Scythians, according to Pliny, using 

 it for that purpose mixed with human blood : the 

 poison of other serpents is used in a similar man- 

 ner by savage nations at the present day *. 



" The viperine poison," says Boerhaave, " is 

 rendered inactive by digestion in the stomach and 

 bowels, so that it will not afterwards exert its sad 

 effects on the blood ; for a whole ounce of the 

 viperine venom taken by the mouth will not kill 

 an animal; when at the same time a small needle 

 only, dipped in the same fluid, taking up perhaps 

 no more than a hundredth part of a drop, and 

 then thrust into the blood of the living animal, al- 

 most infallibly kills." 



" A Viper," says the same author, " being en- 

 raged by the members of the Tuscan Academy, 

 and then suffered to bite the nose of a strong bull, 

 the animal died in a short time, and being opened 

 by the most expert anatomists, no uncommon 

 alteration could be perceived either in the solid 

 or fluid parts of the beast." 



The most established application for the bite 

 of a Viper is common olive oil, thoroughly rubbed 

 on the wounded part: this the Viper-Catchers f 

 use, as is pretended, with perfect success; and all 

 other applications, as volatile alkali, &c. &c. seem 

 of far less certain efficacy. 



* In this theory of poisoning darts there appears nothing im- 

 probable when we consider the effects of the variolous matter 

 dried on the point of a lancet and used in inoculation. 



t See the case of Isaac Oliver, in the Philosophical Transac- 

 tions. 



