ORDER OPHIDIA. 367 



In Smaland, where, as we have already said, this serpent 

 is common, they have a custom of burying the bitten part, 

 also of putting the crushed animal upon the wound, which 

 they scarify, to make the blood flow. But these remedies, 

 and many others, rarely succeed, and most of the inhabitants 

 when they are bitten in the toe, prefer having it immediately 

 amputated. Olive oil, in the case of the bite of this reptile, 

 has been used without success. 



The patient of Lars Montin, above mentioned, appears to 

 have received some relief by the application of a cataplasm 

 of ash-leaves on the bitten part, and by the administration 

 every half hour of a mixture of the juice of these leaves, and 

 wine, a wine-glass full to each dose. In the same case the- 

 riaca and hot oil were also employed. 



Bergius has recommended internally a warm infusion of 

 the stems of the aristolochia trilohata of Jamaica, taken 

 internally, and unctions externally with camphorated lin- 

 seed oil. 



The ammodytes is a native ot all the south of Europe. It 

 is found in Dauphine, and in the neighbourhood of Lyons in 

 France, and in the east of Europe, in the mountains of Illy- 

 ria. It habitually frequents the rocks which border on the 

 Danube, the neighbourhood of the city of Gorice and the 

 Japidian mountains. 



This reptile passes the winter concealed in clefts and cre- 

 vices of rocks, from which it issues forth when the warmer 

 rays of the sun announce the return of spring. Then it casts 

 its skin, and the time of reproduction begins. 



Its habitual food differs in nothing from that of the com- 

 mon viper, and its bite is not less dangerous. It instantane- 

 ously produces dazzlings of the eyes, giddiness, and a sort of 

 insensibility, which lasts a long time, and is followed by 

 intense pain. The wound is inflamed, the parts adjacent 

 swell, and become livid and black in succession. Paleness 



