BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEN. 95 



and prepare their revengeful poisons. The ancients 

 were known to preserve it for the purposes of sui- 

 cide, and among barbarians the venom of snakes is 

 used as a philter to this day. How much more ho- 

 nourable for human nature when the ingenuity of 

 man is exerted for the preservation of his species* 

 and as Vipers are the only animals of a venomous 

 kind, from whose bite the inhabitants of Great Bri- 

 tain have any thing to fear, the discovery of Wil- 

 liam Oliver, the Viper-catcher at Bath, that the ap- 

 plication of Olive Oil was an effectual cure for the 

 bite of one of these animals, may not be improperly 

 mentioned here, to the honour of that person, who 

 submitted to some dangerous experiments in corro- 

 boration of the truth of this discovery. 



Nor is the care of Providence less observable in 

 the provision made for the security and preservation 

 of the more harmless kinds of reptiles, than for those 

 of a dangerous and venomous description. The 

 naked and tender body of the Earth worm is no 

 doubt pretty securely lodged in the subterraneous 

 vaults it forms for itself in the earth, and the Ser- 

 pent, in the absence of defensive weapons, enjoys no 

 little security in the dread its very form inspires; but 

 slill the former is exposed to many an injury in his 

 lowly situation, and the latter may oft wait long for 

 the approach of his victims ; but the feeble worm, 

 when cut in several parts by the gardener's spade, 

 evinces a remarkable tenacity of the vital powers ; 

 and the voracious Liboya, which can swallow at a 

 raeal an animal three times as thick as itself, at other 



