Various opinions on viperine poison. 



consequence of which his tongue swelled, with a 

 litlle inflammation, and the soreness lasted two 

 clays. Other persons, on the contrary, assert that 

 it has no particular acrimony of taste, but that, 

 in this respect, it rather resembles oil or gum. 

 Contradictions nearly equal have taken place re- 

 lative to the effect of viperine poison taken into 

 the stomach. Boerhaave affirms it to produce 

 no ill effect whatever; and the Abb6 Fontana, 

 although he asserts that it is devoid of any thing 

 unpleasant to the taste, declares it cannot be 

 swallowed with impunity. We are told, how- 

 ever, that in the presence of the Grand Duke 

 of Tuscany, while the philosophers were making 

 elaborate dissertations on the danger of the poison, 

 taken inwardly, a viper-catcher, who happened 

 to be present, requested that a quantity of it 

 might be put into a vessel, and then, with the 

 ntmost confidence, and, to the astonishment of 

 the whole company, he drank it off in their pre- 

 sence. Every one expected the man instantly to 

 drop down dead ; but they soon perceived their 

 mistake, and found that, taken inwardly, the poi- 

 son was as harmless as water. 



The poison of the viper was anciently collected 

 "by many of the European nations as a poison for 

 their arrows, in like manner as that of other ser- 

 pents is used, at the present day, by the inhabit- 

 ants of savage nations. 



The viper is the only malicious serpent in 

 Great Britain of which we need be afraid. By 



