VIPERA LACHESIS. 99 
Length 50 to 80 centimetres; tail obtuse; body of nearly a uniform 
thickness, variegated by small square macule, divided from each other 
by entire, narrow rings, which embrace the whole body ; head small, 
slightly compressed ; eyes hardly discernible; feeth stout in proportion to 
its size, slightly curved backwards; belly whitish with a roseate shade at 
the sides; sides and dorswm marked indiscriminately with small dark 
spots ; color light lead, macule and rings a dark brown or nearly black. 
In the district of Guamocé (United States of Colombia), in 
the State of Antioquia, a snake abounds which varies in 
length from four to ten feet, called Birri. It has large fangs, 
is slow in its movements, like the Crotalus horridus, and. its 
skin is variegated somewhat similar to the Lachesis bufo- 
cephalus. 
Never having been able to visit that district, I solicited a 
celebrated Curer to bring me a specimen alive, but never was 
able to procure one. 
Its poison is exceedingly deadly, and so peculiar in its 
action, that shortly after injection into the blood, large masses 
of flesh rot and drop off, and this continues till the bone is 
laid completely bare and a large vein is reached, when death 
ensues immediately. This fact originates the name of Podre- 
dora, or Rotter, it has in some places. 
I only knew of one case of its bite in which death did not 
ensue, but the flesh had sloughed away up to the knee, leaving 
the upper surface of the foot and lower leg nearly bare, and 
one entire ulcer, which healed in about thirty days by taking 
a tablespoonful of Bilis. Acrochordon Chocoe (ten drops in 
ten ounces aq. dest.) daily. 
All cases of its bites in Guamoco are now (1873) cured by 
a preparation of its gall. As yet no case has been known to 
terminate fatally since this remedy has been used in this dis- 
trict, where its use was introduced under my directions by a 
miner in*the year 1865. 
