ORDER OPHIDIA. 3l6 



As these symptoms vary in intensity, so are they developed 

 with a greater or less degree of rapidity. Dr. Hervez de 

 Chegoin saw a woman die in thirty-seven hours after having 

 been bitten by a viper, and Dr. Pruina mentions the case of 

 a man who gave way in eight hours under the influence of 

 the venom of this reptile. This difference is by no means 

 surprising to those who give themselves the trouble of a little 

 reflection. It may be explained, on the one hand, by cir- 

 cumstances relative to the aggressing animal, such as its 

 strength, size, the degree of anger by which it is animated, 

 the quantity of poison which it has poured into the wound, 

 the number of bites which it has made, the country more or 

 less southern which it inhabits, and the temperature of the 

 season. On the other side, the difference is referrible to 

 causes belonging to the wounded animal, as constitution, 

 age, nervous susceptibility, degree of fright, the fulness or 

 vacuity of the primse vias at the moment of the accident, 

 the nature of the injured part, and its more or less vascular 

 structure. Thus we may ascertain why some infants, women, 

 and even adult men, have perished rapidly in consequence of 

 the bite of a viper, while others have been scarcely incom- 

 moded by it. 



The experiments of Fontana, confirmed by the more recent 

 ones of M. Mangili, have clearly demonstrated that the poison 

 of the viper may not only be swallowed without inconveni- 

 ence, when there is no excoriation in the cavity of the mouth, 

 but even be placed with impunity in contact with other mu- 

 cous membranes. Some experiments mentioned by M. Clo- 

 quet, and performed in Paris on the 28th of September 

 1828, with the poison of a dead rattle-snake, by Dr. Rousseau, 

 anatomical preparer to the King's garden, are confirmatory 

 of the assertion of the learned Italians on this point. A drop 

 of the poisonous liquor was let fall on the conjunctiva of the 

 eye of a frog; another drop of the same fluid was spread on 



