VOL. XVIII.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. (J55 



and convulsions, tingling of the ears, and frequently deafness for a moment i 

 next, as it were, a whitish mist comes before their eyes, which soon vanishes ; 

 the part bitten swells at first to the size of a pea, after that it grows as large 

 as a bean or a nut, and increasing spreads itself over the neighbouring parts to 

 a very considerable tumour, and stretching of the flesh, which grows oedema- 

 tous, and by little and little falls into the scrotum, and leaves the part black, 

 blue, and yellow. It makes as it were bags in the skin, which feel heavy when 

 you walk, as if filled with quicksilver. Use what means you will, the poison 

 will have its course, and it is usually 3 days before it comes to the height, and 

 as long abating. For those great swellings and stretchings of the parts, a fomen- 

 tation and cataplasm is made with marrubium, thapsus barbatus, and agrimony. 



The gall of the viper is nowise venomous, and Pontaeus says, he usually 

 gives it without any ill effect or trouble, but its bitterness ; all the poison is in 

 a liquor in the gums, which is yellow like oil. The viper is the most venomous 

 of serpents ;* the asp is but a species of the viper. The napellus is a very 

 dangerous poison, acting by its acrimony, but you must take a great quantity of 

 it : it burns the throat extremely, as does alum, but it is cured by the antidote. 

 Crude antimony does nothing if attacked by the antidote. The most mis- 

 chievous of all poisons is opium ; -|- of which having given an excessive quan- 

 tity to his servant, at first he had convulsions, then strange vomitings, not able 

 to let any thing go down into his stomach, a sleepiness followed ; all which time 

 they kept him awake as much as possible. At last all of a sudden he grew well, 

 and called for victuals. 



Succisa, or devil's-bit, is excellent for poisons, especially the plague : and it 

 is observable, that it is so powerful a sudorific, that laying the sick person on a 

 bed of that herb, moderately hot, he will sweat till they take him off", and 

 much more if he drinks of the decoction or juce of the herb. He says, that 

 for the dropsy one of the best remedies in the world is to take morsus diaboli, 

 and put it over the fire in a dry kettle, that it may wet it only with its own 

 juice, and of this to apply a quantity to the belly and reins of the patient, 

 covering him up warm, and so provoking sweat ; which will come away in great 

 quantity, and may be maintained according to the strength of the patient, and 

 exigency of the case. 



* The viper (coluber vipera, Linn.) is not the most venomous of serpents. The rattle-snake 

 (crotalus horridus) and the cobra de capello are far more deleterious. The last indeed belongs to the 

 same genus with the viper, being the coluber naja of Linnaeus. See Russel on Indian serpents. 



t Neither is opium the most mischievous of all poisons, or of all vegetable poisons, as we suppose 

 the author's meaning to be. The aconitum napeilus, and the prunus lauro-cerasus are more cer- 

 tainly fatal. 



