THE VIPER, OR ADDER. 67 



by the other, is not such a lover of water as the 

 Snake, and may generally be found in dry woods 

 and heaths, in sandy banks, and similar local- 

 ities. It has been said that they are more than 

 usually common in the dry woods on the chalky 

 soil of Kent, and they certainly come nearly 

 within the sound of Bow bells, for they have 

 been met with in the little woods around Hamp- 

 stead, Highgate, and Hornsey. 



It is a common belief that the venom of the 

 Viper, and other serpents, is almost innocuous 

 in winter, that its virulence is proportionate 

 to the heat of the weather, whether at home or 

 abroad ; and that the snakes of tropical climes 

 are more deadly venomous than those of tem- 

 perate countries, on account of the greater heat. 

 Recently Dr. Guyon has set himself to inves- 

 tigate this subject, especially whether the poison 

 is innocuous in winter, with the following 

 results : 



Regarding its violence, he says there is a 

 general belief abroad that it is much more 

 powerful in summer than in winter ; but this he 

 does not consider well authenticated, and quotes 

 against it the case of one Drake, an exhibitor of 

 snakes, who, having in the summer of 1827, at 

 Rouen, handled a rattlesnake which he took to 

 be dead, while it was only benumbed by the 

 cold, was bitten by it and died in the course of 

 F 2 



