26 



bags near the root of their teeth, which contain the 

 poison. When they bite, this is squeezed out by 

 the compression of those bags. If they are taken 

 out of a viper, the liquid they contain mixed with 

 the blood of an animal, causes death. But if taken in 

 by the mouth, it does no harm, losing its efficacy by 

 mixing with other liquids. 



A Viper has the biggest and flattest head of all 

 the serpent kind. It is usually half an ell long, and 

 a^n inch thick, with a snout not unlike that of a 

 hog. It has sixteen small teeth in one row, beside 

 two large, sharp, hoofced, hollow, transparent teeth, 

 placed at each side of the lower jaw. These convey 

 the poison into the wound, through a long slit. They 

 are flexible, and then only" raised, when the viper is 

 going to bite. The roots of them are encompassed 

 with a little bladder, containing a large drop of a 

 yellow insipid juice. The slit is a little below the 

 point of the teeth, which are not hollow to the top. 

 Hence arise all those dreadful symptoms, which 

 frequently end in death. But they are all prevented 

 or removed, by rubbing oil upon the wound. 



Vipers creep but slowly, and never leap or bite, 

 unless provoked. They are of a yellowish colour, 

 speckled with longish brown spots. The belly is of 

 the colour of well polished steel. Other serpents 

 jay eggs ; the female viper only brings forth her 

 young alive, wrapt up in skins, which break on the 

 third day, and set them at liberty. 



The venom of a viper is not mortal to a sound 

 and robust body, though attended with painful swel- 

 lings, violent vomitings, phrensies, and convulsions. 

 In eight or ten days, the poison having run through 

 divers parts of the body, throws itself into the 

 scrotum, and swelling it extremely, causes great 

 heat, and much urine very hot and sharp, by which 

 it is discharged, this being the certain crisis of the dis- 

 ease. 



But a sickly or fearful person, bit by a viper 

 surely dies ; if there be rto speedy help. Any one 



