412 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO I669. 



experiments, made by himself in the presence of several physicians and others, 

 in proof of this assertion ; in the recitation of which he observes many remark- 

 able phaenomena, seen iil the animals bitten by vipers, both without and also 

 within them when dead and opened; particularly, that he found all their vitals 

 and viscera fresh and in a good state, but the blood, in all of them that were 

 opened, either coagulated already and blackish, or tending towards coagulation. 



2. To confute the opinion of those (and particularly of the famous Italian 

 philosopher Redi) who assert that the venom of these animals resides in the 

 yellow liquor contained in the bag about the vipers' teeth ; whereas this author 

 will have it to be in their vexed and enraged spirits, which he thinks he has 

 sufficiently proved by wounding several animals with some of the largest teeth 

 of vipers, pulled out, and letting into wounds thus made, and rubbing with that 

 reputed poisonous liquor of the bag; whereupon no ill effects at all have fol- 

 lowed. Which he confirms by another trial, wherein, holding the jaws of a 

 viper, and then thrusting its teeth into the flesh of a living animal, and letting 

 the juice of the bag into the wound, no ill consequence appeared,* considering 

 that the angred spirits of the viper in that forced and restrained posture were 

 kept from passing abroad; for the emission of which he supposes the freedom of 

 the animal is required. 



3. To recommend, among divers other antidotes for the bitings of vipers, 

 the volatile salt made of them ; the virtues of which he praises exceedingly, al- 

 leging the example of a person, who being bitten by a viper, could be saved by 

 no other means but by several doses of this volatile salt ; the preparation of 

 which he describes at large. -|- 



IV. Athanasii Kircheri Ars Magna Sciendi sive Combinatoria. Amstelo- 

 dami, 1669, in fol. 



In this voluminous work on the art of reasoning, the author first shows the 

 theory and the rules, in the first five books, and then, in the other six, he ap- 

 plies these rules to practice by examples, relating to the several arts and 

 sciences. 



V, Le Systeme General de la Philosophic, par Francois Bayle, D. M. A. 

 Thoulouze, 1669, in fol. 



This small tract, consisting only of four sheets, may serve to initiate those 

 that desire to be acquainted with the sum and import of the Cartesian philoso- 



* All this is contradicted by the late observations of Fontana, mentioned in the notes at p. 58 of 

 this vol, Charas seems (as Haller has remarked) to have employed sickly and exhausted vipers in his 

 experiments. 



+ The volatile salt obtained from the flesh and bones of the viper^ differs not from that procured 

 from the flesh and bones of other animals. Such volatile salts are, however, good antidotes in these 

 cases. 



