25 ANATURALHISTORY 



kill'd. To this, I fliall add fome Experiments made by the in- 

 genious Mr. Addijon, who fays- — — 



— " A Dog that has hisNofe held in'the Vapour (within the 

 " Cave) lofes all the Signs of Life in a very little time." Then 

 he obferves, how long a Dog was expiring the firfc time, and af- 

 ter his Recovery, and found no fenfible Difference. " A Viper 

 ' put in, adds he, bore it nine Minutes the firft time we put it 

 ' in, and ten the fecond. When v/e brought it out after the firft 

 ' Trial, it took fuch a vaft quantity of Air into its Lungs, that 

 ' it fwell'd aimoft twice as big as before, and it was perhaps, on 

 ' this Stock of Air, that it lived a Minute longer. 

 "A Torch, SnufFandall, goes out in a moment, when dipt in- 



' to the Vapours ,or Steams of that Cave A Piftol can't fire in 



'it. I fplit a 'Reed, and laid in the Channel of it a Train of 

 ' Gun-powder, fo that one end of the Reed was above the Va- 

 ' pour, and the other at the bottom of it; and I found, tho' the 

 ' Steam was ftrong enough to hinder a Piftol from taking fire in 

 ' it — that it could not intercept the Train of Fire, when it once 

 ' be2;un flafl^ing, nor prevent it from running to the very end — Fire 

 ' will live in it no longer than in Water, becaufe it vv^raps itfelf 

 ' in the fame manner about the Flame, and by its Continuity 

 ' hinders any quantity of Air, or Nitre from coming to its 

 ' fuccour *. " 



Nor are our Mines in Great-Britain altogether free from 

 thefe fatal Damps, that have turn'd Coal-pits into Graves. In a 

 Coal-pit belonging to Lord Sinclair in Scotland, feven or eight 

 Men intending to work in a Place where they had been the Day 

 before, but ftepping a little further, they all fell down dead, as 

 if they had been (hot. The Wife of one of them, venturing to 

 fee her Huiband, fell down dead as foon as flie came near the 

 Corps -f". 



in. W E come now to the fenfible Region, where animal Poi- 

 fons reign; that is, Poifon drawn from Animals, as the Viper, Alp, 

 Scorpion, Lepus Marinus : and here we are to encounter with an 

 Army of Serpents, and their formidable Train. 



When we fpeak of the Poifon of Serpents, we muft not fup- 

 pofeit diffufed thro' the whole Body, as fome have imagined. 



Many 



* His Warh^ vol. iii. p. 8, 97. t Lowthorp's Abridgment^ voL ii. p. 373. 



