36 CLASS REPTILIA. 



greeable effluvium — as persons who digest badly have a fetid 

 breath, especially in the morning. This fact has, probably, 

 given rise to the notion of the pretended fascination exercised 

 by serpents on their prey ; to which may be added the lively 

 terror which they inspire by their fiery glances, wide-gaping 

 mouth with trenchant teeth, upreared body, and tremendous 

 hissings of rage and fury. What weak animal would not be 

 terrified at that which would make the bravest man recede, 

 were he unarmed ? It is thus that it has been pretended that 

 serpents could charm birds, and make them fall by this fasci- 

 nation into their mouths. It is, unquestionably, to this 

 oppressive vapour and horrid aspect, that we must attribute 

 the strange effects of the look of toads on dogs, and even on 

 men themselves. 



The power of another over us is very frequently founded 

 on the weakness of our imagination. A strong individual, by 

 his very aspect, inspires terror in the timid — as the dog is 

 seen, by his glance alone, to arrest the game ; and as we see 

 persons blush with shame, turn pale with fear, or lose the 

 power of articulation, at the mere look of another. In warm 

 climates, where the imagination of the inhabitants is very 

 ardent and susceptible — and, indeed, among the savage and 

 semi-barbarous of all countries, even our own — we find this 

 doctrine of the fascination of looks very generally prevalent. 

 The envenomed glances of envy or of hatred are dreaded with 

 regard to infants, and other delicate beings, supposed to be 

 subjected to their influence. What has not been written and 

 spoken, and with much truth, concerning the looks of love 

 and their prodigious empire ? Animals are not destitute of 

 this sensibility, or rather this moral impressibility : they act 

 upon each other by these looks and influences, as we act upon 

 them, and as they unquestionably can upon us. A story 

 has been related of a pretended magician, who having shut up 

 several toads in a large box well closed, was desirous, after 



