OF SERPENTS. 



Many Errors about the particular Situation of it, have been hap- 

 pily removed by the Learned Dr. Redi, and Dr. Mead, who ob- 

 ferves the Viper has aWays been fo notorious for its Poifon, that 

 the mofi: remote Antiquity, made it an Emblem of what is hurt- 

 ful and deftrudive, but were not agreed from whence the Poifon 

 proceeded, whether from the Saliva, the Teeth, the Gall, &c. 

 which leads me to a PalTage in the noble ltalta?i, who fays : 



. , . . T H A T as a certain Learned Society in Italy were debating 

 this Point, one JacobusSozzi [audiendi gratia) who was allow'd to 

 be prefent, Rationed himfelf in a corner of the Place, and hear- 

 ing fome of them affirm that the Poifon was in the Gall-bladder, 

 fell a fmiling ; and being afk'd the Reafon, he anfwer'd, that 

 the Serpent's Gall was an innocent Part: Whereupon, in their 

 Prefence, he drank a Glafs of Wine, mixt with the Gall of a 

 Viper, without any ill Effe6l. 



N E of the Company uiid, he came thither widi his Body 

 prepared by Alexipharmicks. He, to convince them of the con- 

 trary, try'd the Experiment upon Dogs, and other Animals, by 

 giving them the Gall of Vipers to drink in abundance, without 

 any Danger enfuing *. 



1 N the Debate about the Seat of the Poifon, the famous Ita- 

 lian maintains, that all the Venom of a Serpent coniifts in a yellow 

 Liquor contain'd in a Bladder, at the bottom of its Tooth, which 

 Liquor, upon its biting, by the Preffure of the Bladder, is forced 

 thro' a Tube within the Tooth, into the Wound, and thence en- 

 fue direful Effedls. This Plypothefis he fupports Ijy a good num- 

 ber of Experiments upon various Animals, which were bit by a 

 Viper, after thofe venemous Bags were taken out, without any 

 Signs of Poifon, or any ill Confequence at all -f-. 



Another celebrated Phyfician mantains, that this yellow 

 Liquid is not poifonous, that he had given it to Pigeons as Food, 



without their being at all diforder'd thereby. That the Viper's 



Bite, he had always found mortal to Animals, even after the ve- 

 nemous Bag was taken out, as well as before. That therefore 



the Poifon mufc lie in the irritated Spirits of the Viper, which it 

 exhales in the Ardor of its biting, and v/hich are fo cold that 

 they curdle the Blood, and ftop the Circulation X- 



E 2 Both 



* Rcdl noh'dis Aretini Experhn. in Res Naturales, pag. 163, 164, 165. 

 ■\ Seignior Redi. % Manfteur Charras, 



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