Poi] AND SYMBOLS. 273 



these lines, being found commonly not only in Guiana, Brazil, 

 and Peru, but also in Paraguay and Mexico, and occasionally 

 visiting Florida in search of food. It feeds upon reptiles and 

 carrion. Its visits to Florida are said to be generally made 

 after the herbage has been burnt upon the prairies, where it 

 feeds greedily upon the half-roasted snakes and other reptiles 

 which have been unable to escape from the flames. MU. 



Poisonous Influences. 



Poisonous influences are often invisible. Hydrogen gas is 

 the most subtle and permeating of aeriform bodies; and it 

 appears by the analysis of Morcati and others, that it favours 

 the diffusion of morbid poisons, as a menstruum and vehicle 

 holding in solution both animal and vegetable matters, which, 

 being brought into contact with the blood, at once alter the 

 chemical relations of that vital fluid, and produce a kind of 

 persisting ferment in it. This gas facilitates decay, and its 

 presence prevents the oxygen from duly acting on the blood, 

 the carbon of which it causes very quickly to be combined 

 with oxygen, so as to form carbonic acid, perhaps even in the 

 blood-vessels. There are moral poisons in the world equally 

 subtle and deadly in their influence. Insincerity, lust, false- 

 hood, selfishness, and irreverence are among the social poisons 

 which abound. The air is rife with them. If either of these 

 poisons enters into the nature of a man, his moral character 

 soon gives evidence of decay. Under the influence of any 

 one of them the passions readily combine to alter the whole of 

 his spiritual organisation, and virtue becomes poisoned at the 

 centre. u. 



The Poisonous Lurking in the Pleasurable. 



Bees sometimes collect their honey from poisonous plants, 

 and instances are recorded of persons having died from partak- 

 ing of this honey. Kirby and Spence quote some proofs of this, 

 such as that given by Dr. Barton, an American physician, who 

 records that in 1790 many persons died in Philadelphia from 

 eating honey. Inquiries were instituted, and it was found that 



