VOL. XXXIX.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 10^ 



July "20. — The swelling was considerably abated, and almost reduced entirely 

 into her hand, which began to pit : but she complained still of her finger, and 

 coulii hardly endure to have it dressed with fresh papers. She continued in bed 

 till the 22d, for the sake of keeping her hand in an easier posture ; and then 

 she came abroad. 



The same day that the woman was bitten, they caused a fowl to be bitten ; 

 but the wound was not deep, and little more than a scratch. Nothing was ap- 

 plied to it, and it died in 20 hours. A large puppy was also bitten the same 

 day, 3 times, in the head ; it had the medicine applied, but died in about 

 an hour. 



It was known that the man and woman kept themselves fasting those days 

 when the experiment was to be tried on them : this occasioned a suspicion that 

 they might take some antidote to prepare their bodies : for which reason. 

 Dr. A. ordered the man to bring him some vipers after dinner, under pretence 

 of making some further experiments on dogs. He had provided at the same 

 time some fresh vipers without his knowledge, and then proposed to him to be 

 bitten by one of them, and apply his medicine immediately. His hand was be- 

 smeared with the medicine in applying it to a young dog, on which an experi- 

 ment had just been made. Two vipers were tried on the man, but neither 

 would bite him : one of them attempted it several times, and spilt his venom, 

 but always caught back his head again, as if there had been something in the 

 hand ofFensive. Suspecting that the smell of the medicine might occasion it, 

 they made him wash his hand, after which another viper bit him immediately : 

 but whether this conjecture was right or not, must depend on further trial. 

 The man received the bite on the joint of the thumb, and the blood issued at 

 the 1 orifices. He applied the medicine instantly : the thumb appeared black, 

 soon, the hand was swoln, and the flesh pitted immediately. He drank a mug 

 of ale after it, and then went home to bed. Next morning his whole arm was 

 swoln ; but he was so well, that he went 6 miles out of town, and came home , 

 again in the evening. Dr. A. saw him again in the morning, when the swell 

 ing was almost gone above the elbow, but the flesh pitted below : the wound 

 had blistered, but the bladders were filled with a water, and not any thing of 

 that black matter which appeared on the woman's finger. They caused the 

 young dog, beforementioned, to be bitten the same day, and applied the medi- 

 cine : another dog was bitten 3 times in the nose, and nothing applied : both 

 were much swoln, but very likely to live. They also thrust the teeth of a viper's 

 head, cut off 24 hours before, into the flesh of a fowl, which turned black 

 immediately ; but the fowl perfectly recovered, without any application. 



