VIPER. 



better than the viper, and, after many hours remaining in it, 

 and fecming dead, will give figns of hfe of. being warmed 

 by bringing the glafs to the fire ; but a longer continuance 

 in the rarefied air abfolutely kills it, as it does all other 

 creatures. Phil. Tranf. No. 62. 



As to the manner in which the viper conveys its poifon, 

 authors are a little difagreed. Francifco Redi, and Moife 

 Charras, have each of them written very curious pieces on 

 the fubjeft ; but their refult is very different. 



Redi maintains, that all the venom of the viper is con- 

 tained in the two veficulae, or bags, which cover the bafe 

 of the two canine teetli ; whence, upon biting, a yellowifh 

 liquor is fqueezed out into the wound ; where, mixing with 

 the blood, and other juices, it produces thofe dreadful 

 fymptoms. This hypothefis he maintains by a great 

 number of experiments ; as of animals, w'a. cocks, &c. 

 being bit with vipers, after thefe veficulae and their juice 

 had been taken out, without any figns of poifon, or any ill 

 confequence at all. 



Charras, on the other hand, maintains, that this yellow 

 liquor is not poifonous ; that he has given it to pigeons as 

 food, without their being at all difordered by it ; that the 

 viper's bite he has always found mortal to animals, even 

 after the bag has been taken clear out, as well as before ; 

 and laftly, that the poifon muft lie in the irritated fpirits of 

 the viper, which it exhales in the ardor of its biting, and 

 which are fo cold, that they curdle the blood, and Itop the 

 circulation. 



The controverfy between thefe two ingenious authors is 

 very extraordinary ; their fyftems are oppofite, yet both 

 are maintained by a great number of well-atteited ex- 

 periments. 



Dr. Mead fuppofes the fentiment of Sig. Redi to be the 

 true one, in his efTay on the poifon of the viper, and adds 

 to Redi's account, that the poifon in the viper's bag is 

 feparated from the blood by a conglomerate gland, lying 

 in the lateral interior part of the os fincipitis, behind the 

 orbit of the eye ; from which gland there is a duft that 

 conveys the poifon to the bags at the teeth. The teeth, 

 he adds, are tubulated, for the conveyance and emifiion of 

 the poifon into the wound ; but their hoUownefs does 

 not reach to the apex, or tip of the tooth, but ends in a 

 long nit below the point, out of which flit the poifon is 

 emitted. 



Thefe flits, or perforations of the teetli, Galeu tells us, 

 the mountebanks of his days ufed to Hop with fome kind 

 of parte ; after which they would publicly expofe them- 

 felves to be bitten without danger. 



The abbe Fontana, in a tieatife on the poifon of the 

 viper, firft publilhed in Itahan, in 1765, and, in 1776, 

 tranflated into French by M. Darcet, who has made 

 feveral additions to it, has given the refult of no lefs than 

 fix thoufand experiments, in which upwards of four 

 thoufand animals were bitten, and moll of them killed 

 by the vipers. 



The viper, he faya, has fometimes four, feldom three, but 

 generally two canine teeth in each jaw, falcated and in- 

 ferted and fixed in a focket ; at their bafes, and beliind 

 them, are fix or feven fmaller teeth, adhering by a mem- 

 brane, which, it is thought, are intended to fupply the 

 place of the larger teeth, fometimes loft in the zA of 

 biting. A fimilar conjefture, with refpeft to the ufe 

 of the fame kind of teeth in the rattle-fnake, was made 

 by Dr. Bartram, Phil. Tranf. No. 456. p. 358 ; or 

 Abr. vol. ix. p. 60. 



Each of thefe has two cavities ; one tubular, beginning 

 near the bafe, and proceeding along the convex fide nearly 

 12 



to the end, and open at each end ; the aperture near the 

 bafe being almoft clhptical, and the other longitudinal ; the 

 other cavity, fituated behind the former, and never before 

 obferved, is broad at the bafe, and diminilhes as it ap- 

 proaches towards the point. It has only one aperture at 

 the infertion in the gum, through which the nerves and 

 blood-veffels of the tooth are admitted. The fibrous 

 fheath, that covers all thefe teeth, feems to be a continu- 

 ation of the external membrane of the palate, being always 

 open near the points of the teeth. The receptacle of the 

 venom is a fmall bladder, a fpongy gland, fituated under 

 the mufcles of the fide of the upper jaw, and feldom con- 

 taining more than three or four drops of a yellow fluid, 

 which is conveyed thence by an excretory duft to the 

 focket of the canine teeth, whence it enters the lower aper- 

 ture of the tube, and finds its way out again at the longi- 

 tudinal orifice, near the point, into the internal part of the 

 wound occafioned by the bite : this fluid receives its im- 

 pulfe from a conftriftor mufcle, which, however, never pro- 

 pels at once the whole of the contents of the gland. For an 

 account of the efFefts of the viper's bite, we refer to Co- 

 luber, Bercs, and Poison. See alfo Wounds. 



The cure of the venomous bites of vipers feems very un- 

 fettled : Mr. Boyle found a hot iron held near the place 

 very fuccefsful ; but it proved otherwife with M. Charras. 

 Again, the fnake-root from the Eaft Indies, immediately 

 applied to the place, is much commended ; but fignor 

 Redi and M. Charras found it of no ufe ; yet Baglivi and 

 Dr. Havers give inftances of its good fuccefs. 



Dr. Mead adds, that the fnake-ftone, direftly applied to 

 a pigeon when bitten, faved its hfe four hours ; whereas 

 moft of the other pigeons bitten died in half an hour. 



This ftone is not natural, but faftitious ; its virtue lies in 

 its porofity, which is fuppofed to imbibe the virus. 



The viper-catchers, Dr. Mead adds, have a fpecific, in 

 which they can fo far confide as not to be afraid of being 

 bitten. 



That fpecific is, the axungia of the viper prefendy rubbed 

 into the wound ; which, confifting of clammy, vifcid, pene- 

 trating and aftive parts, flieathes the falts of the virus. 



The fame author applying it to the noftrils of a dog 

 bitten, found the creature well the next day : when this is 

 not timely applied, and the virus has infinuated into the 

 blood, the fal viper is excellent, given and repeated till 

 fweats be produced. This fucceeded well with M. Charras; 

 and Dr. Mead relates, that it recovered one after the virus 

 had induced an univerfal ifterus. 



The bite of tb.e viper having been fuppofed certainly 

 curable by oil of olives, vulgarly called fallad-oil, alone ; 

 and a viper-catcher in England having fuffered himfelf to 

 be bitten by one of thefe creatures, and having recovered, 

 after many dangerous fymptoms, and the care being at- 

 tributed to the oil alone, though other medicines were given 

 him internally ; in confequence of which. Dr. Vater tried 

 the fame remedy with fuccefs at Drefden : Meffrs. Geoffroy 

 and Hunauld, of the Royal Academy of Sciences at Paris, 

 made a number of experiments, in which this oil proved 

 ineS'eftual ; and added to their accounts, fome other perfons 

 bitten, in which all the dreadful confequcnces of that poifon 

 are fliewn, and the remedies by which they were cured are 

 mentioned. Philof. Tranf. N"^ 443, 444, 445; or Abr. 

 vol. ix. p. 60. 



Two inftances are mentioned, in which the fymptoms of 

 the bite appeared much in the fame manner with thofe of 

 the man who fuffered himfelf to be bitten in England, in 

 order to be cured by the oil. The fleep came on in all the 

 fame circuraftances, and they were all cured, as well he 



who 



