ORDER OPHIDIA. 379 



derable time in an iron mortar, and then reduced to an 

 impalpable powder in a stone mortar. Being thus completely 

 pulverized, a little water is added to them, and pills are 

 made about the thickness of a pea, which are preserved in 

 a dry and dark place. One of these pills must be taken 

 night and morning, in a betel-leaf, or if the latter cannot be 

 procured, with cold water. 



In the sixth volume of the " Asiatic Kesearches," Mr. 

 Boaz, after having examined with care the ancient curative 

 processes for the bite of venomous serpents, recommends in 

 the last place as a specific in the dreadful malady caused by 

 the poison of the cobra di capello, nitrate of silver, which 

 was a remedy long since proposed by Fontana in the case 

 of the viper. In the second volume of the same collection, 

 Mr. J. Williams has inserted a paper on the caustic volatile 

 alkali against the deleterious effects of the bite of different 

 serpents, and particularly that of the cobra di capello. It 

 seems that this medicament should be applied both exter- 

 nally on the wound, and at the same time administered 

 internally. 



A remedy much boasted of by some of the ancient mis- 

 sionaries, who had travelled in the East Indies, and who 

 pretended to cure the bite of the naja, as well as that of 

 other venomous animals, has been proved useless by the 

 experiments of the learned Redi. This is a calculous con- 

 cretion, which according to them is formed near the head, 

 or in the body of the serpent in question, and which is named 

 serpent or cobra-stone. This account of the origin of this 

 pretended stone is assuredly false, and it is nothing but a 

 factitious medicament composed by some charlatan. It 

 appears to be nothing but a blackish or greenish argillaceous 

 earth, which has the property of absorbing with great faci- 

 lity the humours which are formed at the surface of any 

 wound whatever. But in India it is believed to imbibe 



