COMMON VIPER. 373 



to be successfully given to be eaten by persons in 

 long wasting* and declines. In France and Italy 

 the broth, jelly, and flesh of Vipers is in much 

 esteem as a restorative medicine*. Dr. Mead 

 thinks the best method is to boil them like fish, 

 " and if this will not go down, though it is really 

 delicious fare," to make use of wine in which they 

 have been digested two or three days in a gentle 

 heat, from which, he says, he has seen very good 

 effects in obstinate lepras. 



Though from these attestations it sufficiently 

 appears that the flesh of the Viper is really nutri- 

 tive and good, yet, such are the revolutions of 

 medical as well as of common taste, that Viper's 

 flesh has now lost a great part of its former credit, 

 and is very rarely prescribed in modern practice. 



The apparatus of poison in the Viper is the same 

 as in the Rattle-Snake and all other poisonous ser- 

 pents, and will be found described anatomically 

 under that article, &c. 



The Viper, as before observed, is subject to vary 

 much in colour, being sometimes of a fine pale 

 grey, or pale ferruginous, with very deep and dis- 

 tinct markings or pattern : sometimes dull brown 

 with less distinct ditto: and, lastly, black, with 

 scarce perceptible pattern, which latter variety has 



* The above account of the supposed virtues of Viper's flesh is 

 chiefly from Dr. Mead. It may be added, that the celebrated 

 Sir Kenelm Digby, for the recovery of his beloved wife, the Lady 

 Venetia Digby, from a consumption, caused her to feed on ca* 

 pops fatted \\jth vipers. 



