VOL. XVIII.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 653 



Librorum Manuscriptorum Academiarum Oxoniensis et Canlabrigiensis, et Cele- 

 brium per Angliam Hiberniamque Bibliothecarum Catalogus, cum Indice Alpha- 

 betico, cura Edvardi Bernardi. Tomis duobus, in folio, J 694. N° 2 1 1 , p. l dO. 



Observations on the f^iper, and some other Poisons : written by Sir Theodore de 

 May erne.* Comtnunicated by Sir Theodore de Faux, M.D. and S.R.S. 

 N° '211, p. 162. 



The venom of a viper in itself is not mortal to a robust and sound body; 

 and though very unhappy and mischievous accidents attend it, as a great tumor, 

 tension and weight of the part, humidity and variety of colours, frenzies, con- 

 vulsions and vomitings ; yet in 8 or 10 days at most these symptoms are over ; 

 and although the patient may be very ill, yet he recovers again ; whilst the 

 poison having run through several parts of the body, at last throws itself into 

 the scrotum, swelling it extremely, and causing a great heat and quantity of urine, 

 very hot and sharp, by which the poison is discharged ; this evacuation being 

 the ordinary and most certain crisis of the disease.-f- — It is observable, that the 

 perspiration being obstructed by the poison, a man bit by a viper and swelled 

 up, in 3 or 4 days will weigh almost as much more as he did before. A 

 sickly person under an ill habit of body, or fearful, dies infallibly, and in a short 

 time if not speedily relieved. 



In the extreme nervous parts near the pulse and tongue, the bites are dan- 

 gerous, and the symptoms very painful. Fresh vipers that have not bit, but 

 have the bladders of the gums full of venom, are the most mischievous. Hence 

 mountebanks to impose on the people either make their vipers bite before they 

 bring them out, or with a needle scratch the gums, and press out the poison. 



* Sir Theodore Mayerne, Baron of Aubonne, was born at (Jeneva in 1573^ and studied both at 

 Heidelberg and Montpellier ; at which last university he took his medical degree ; after which he 

 settled at Paris, and became physician to the French king Henry IV. In 16OO he attended the Duke 

 of Rohan in his embassies to Germany and Italy. In 1607 he came over to England with a noble- 

 man of this country, whom he had recovered from a dangerous illness on the Continent. Being 

 introduced to James I. this monarch was so much pleased with him, that he offered him the appoint- 

 ment of first physician to himself and the queen ; an offer which was gladly accepted by Mayerne, 

 as in consequence of his religious tenets (he being a protestant) his situation at the French court 

 began to be unpleasant, while he was at the same time at variance with the faculty of medicine at 

 Paris, in consequence of his partiality for certain chemical preparations, which they had condemned. 

 After the death of James I. he continued to enjoy the honor of being physician to the royal family 

 under Charles I. He died at Chelsea in l655, aged 82, having accumulated by the exercise of his 

 profession a very large fortune. Some years after his death his manuscripts, containing his Consilia, 

 Epistolae, et Observationes ; his Pharmacopoeia variaeque Medicamentort. Formulae; Syntagma Praxeos, 

 &c. were published, making altogether a large folio volume. 



f According to other accounts the crisis is chiefly by perspiration 



