ORDER OPHIDIA. , 323 



with the prester ; the seps occasioned rottenness in the limbs 

 and bodies of those whom it had bitten. 



But among these fables_, the most extraordinary and in- 

 credible is that of the basilisk, a serpent on whose head 

 Avicenna, Pliny, Solinus, Nicander, and a number of other 

 ancient writers, have placed a crown, affrighting all the other 

 serpents with its terrible aspect, and appearing, says the 

 medical poet last mentioned, to be truly their king. The 

 sinister sound of its voice had the power of causing death, 

 and no animal could encounter for an instant its terrific 

 glance without ceasing to exist. Its skin, as Solinus tells 

 us, was hung up in the temple of Pergamus, the inhabi- 

 tants of which city had purchased it at a very high price, 

 and it hindered the birds from building their nests there, and 

 the spiders from spreading their webs. Pliny also mentions 

 it, and Actius, who declares there is no remedy for its bite, 

 in consequence of the instantaneous rapidity of its effect, 

 which, according to Erasistratus, causes the muscles to fall 

 off suddenly in shreds. 



The serpents are not merely hurtful. Their flesh has 

 been employed Avith some advantage by man, and certain of 

 their organs. Without attaching any credit to stories for- 

 merly circulated on this subject, such as those relative to the 

 extraordinary virtues attributed to the cast skin of the ser- 

 pent, we may believe, on the most respectable authority, that 

 the flesh of snakes, is by no means an inefficacious remedy 

 in many cutaneous maladies. The anaconda, and other boas, 

 supply the natives of the countries which they inhabit with 

 wholesome nourishment, and the adders are used as food in 

 many parts of the south of France. 



We read in the Philosophical Magazine, December ]816, 

 of a serpent which was found in a mine of pit-coal at 

 Liphone, at a depth of fifty feet, and also of a living adder 

 found enclosed in a small cavity, which had no communi- 



Y 2 



