368 CLASS REPTILIA. 



follows. The pulse appears small, frequent, weak, and 

 interrupted. The extremities of the limbs grow cold, the 

 lips swell, and the patient is soon affected by all the symp- 

 toms of an adynamic bilious fever. Matthiolus informs us 

 that he has seen persons succumb under the effects of a bite 

 of this kind in less than three hours ; but this, as in the case 

 of the common viper's bite, must depend on many individual 

 circumstances, on the present state of the system, or on a 

 special idiosyncrasy. 



The poison of this viper may also be swallowed with impu- 

 nity, and the best method, in case of a bite, is to suck the 

 wound as soon as possible, and with a certain degree of force. 

 This method was tried with success in his own case, by 

 Charas, in 1692, and it was on this reptile that most of his 

 researches and experiments were made. 



In the fields in the neighbourhood of Vienna, when any 

 one is bitten by an ammodytes, a ligature is immediately 

 applied both above and below the wound, which is scarified 

 with a thorn of paliurus accuieatus, then rubbed with garlic, 

 and fomented with a vinous decoction of rue and rosemary. 

 Internal medicaments are also recommended, but as they are 

 of the same nature as those already indicated, it is needless 

 to repeat them here, i 



This viper was well known to the ancients, but its syno- 

 nimy is very much confused, for Belon speaks of it under 

 the name of dryinus, Aetius under that of Ksyx?^^'^ 5 Laurenti, 

 sometimes agreeing with Aldrovandi, calls it vipera Illyrica, 

 and sometimes makes a different species of it, under the de- 

 nomination of vipera Mosis Charas. Gmelin, in his edition 

 of the Systema NaturcB, describes separately, under the 

 appellation of coluber aspis, the very same reptile which 

 Linnaeus and himself had already described under coluber 

 ammodytes, which is the one under our present consider- 

 ation. 



