ORDER OPHIDIA. SJS 



respecting the natural exemption possessed by the inhabi- 

 tants of Sennaar from the fatal effects of the bite of the ceras- 

 tes, but the fact which he states so very clearly respecting 

 the pelican, of which he was an eye-witness, and in which 

 he was an actor, does not, we think, deserve to be dismissed 

 so unceremoniously as M. Cloquet has dismissed it. In fact, 

 when we consider how the bite of the most venomous serpents 

 is known to vary according to circumstances, we shall not 

 find any thing so very marvellous in this story of Bruce, nor 

 need we have recourse for its explanation to any natural 

 exemption, or medicated preservative on the part of the 

 wounded man. As to the usage of herbs, we shall have occa- 

 sion to see that that notion is not altogether so very unfound- 

 ed as M. Cloquet would have us to believe. But the truth 

 is, that poor Bruce seems to be regarded as an authority, by 

 our continental friends, much in the same way as he was 

 considered in this country immediately after the publication 

 of his travels. As a philosopher, and as a systematic natu- 

 ralist, his claims to attention are perhaps not very high ; but 

 the gross injustice of the imputation of wilful falsehood, so 

 ignorantly and maliciously brought against him, has been 

 clearly proved by the testimony of subsequent travellers — a 

 fact with which the French savans in general appear to be 

 totally unacquainted. 



If the story of the pelican be not a downright lie, it is clear 

 that, on that occasion, the fangs of the cerastes were not 

 drawn, nor its poison exhausted. On the other occasion, 

 Bruce merely relied as to this point on the assertions of 

 Kitton and his slave, and Dr. Shaw very judiciously queries 

 whether the chicken might not have died in consequence 

 of the spinal marrow having been pierced, a result that 

 would have as certainly followed from the insertion of a pin. 

 We beg to call the attention of our readers to the passage 

 which we have marked in Italics, as a procf of the caution 



