VEGETABLE POISONS. 153 



vations, and the necessity of the animals, from 

 which they are derived, may not be brought 

 within our limited comprehension ; yet we know 

 that the weapons, by which they inflict their 

 deadly wounds, are intended for their defence, 

 and that, without them, their means of subsist- 

 ence would no longer exist ; while the horror, 

 uniformly produced by venomous serpents, serves 

 as a protection to the whole tribe. 



But man was not satisfied in his earlier dis- 

 coveries with the power of discriminating between 

 that which was salubrious, and that which was 

 injurious to his constitution ; but he must go one 

 step further, and ascertain how far these dele- 

 terious substances might be turned to his own 

 account, He soon discovered, that if his life 

 could be destroyed by their accidental operation, 

 that of his enemies also could be taken away by 

 an ingenious application of them, without much 

 risk (as he supposed) of entailing upon himself 

 the consequences of premeditated murder; or 

 that, if wearied of life himself, he possessed the 

 ready means of getting rid of the evil, without 

 the horror, and (as he imagined) without the pain, 

 attending the more ordinary modes of committing 

 suicide. 



Hence the origin of secret poisoning ; which 

 has been prevalent for time immemorial, and 

 which has disgraced the annals of mankind more 



