60 VIPERID^E. 



the numerous reports of such a termination, which have at 

 various times been confidently promulgated. At the same 

 time the symptoms are frequently so threatening, that I 

 cannot but conclude that in very hot weather, and when not 

 only the reptile is in full activity and power, but the con- 

 stitution of the victim in a state of great irritability and 

 diminished power, a bite from the Common Viper would 

 very probably prove fatal. The remedies usually employed 

 are the external application of oil, and the internal adminis- 

 tration of ammonia. 



The poisonous fluid is perfectly innocuous when swallowed. 

 Dr. Mead, and others, have made this experiment, and 

 never experienced the slightest ill effects from it. It is, 

 however, clear that there would be danger in swallowing it, 

 were any part of the mouth, the throat, or the oesophagus, 

 in a state of ulceration, or having an abraded surface. 



It will not perhaps be wholly uninteresting to describe 

 briefly the very beautiful apparatus* by which the poison 

 wounds are inflicted, which render these, and so many other 

 Serpents, so formidable. On each side of the upper jaw, 

 instead of the outer row of teeth which are found in non- 

 venomous Serpents, there exist two or three, or more, long, 

 curved, and tubular teeth, the first of which is larger than 

 the others, and is attached to a small moveable bone, arti- 

 culated to the maxillary bone, and moved by a muscular 

 apparatus, by which the animal has the power of erecting it. 

 In a state of rest the fang reclines backwards along the mar- 

 gin of the jaw, and is covered by a fold of skin ; but when 

 about to be called into use, it is erected by means of a small 

 muscle, and brought to stand perpendicular to the bone. 

 The tooth itself is as it were perforated by a tube, the mode 

 of formation of which was not understood until it was de- 

 monstrated by Mr. Smith in the Philosophical Transactions 

 for 1818. This tube, although completely enclosed, except- 

 * See page 65. 



