158 ON ANIMAL AND 



light upon the subject I have in view, viz. an 

 illustration of the different poisons, and of their 

 effects upon the human frame. And as the 

 nature of venomous poisons, excepting from the 

 bite of a rabid animal, is nearly the same in all, 

 and as their effects on the constitution differ only 

 in degree ; it will be sufficient to notice a few of 

 those animals of each climate which are considered 

 to be the most dangerous ; to mark out their 

 external characters by which they are to be dis- 

 tinguished from animals of the same class, which 

 experience has taught are innocuous ; and to 

 describe the apparatus and mechanism of the 

 instrument by which the poison is prepared 

 and carried into the system, when they inflict a 

 wound upon other animals. 



Venomous animals, if we except those which 

 are rendered accidentally rabid, are confined to 

 the serpent and insect tribes ; and of these tribes, 

 very few belong to the former class. 



Unfortunate, indeed, would it have been for 

 mankind, and for the whole of the animal species, 

 had quadrupeds and birds possessed in common 

 with reptiles and insects, the power of destroying 

 life by the same means which now obtain in 

 venomous animals. In that case, man's whole 

 life must have been devoted to the guarding 

 against their attacks ; and personal security and 

 self-confidence would have been at an end. But 

 in this, as in every thing else, Providence has 



