ACANTHOPHIS BROWNII. $9 



variety of the common viper ; and the (Esping of the Swedes, is 

 quite another species from the one in question."* 



The ancients entertained a notion that the poison of this serpent is 

 more deadly than that of any other venomous creature inhabiting the 

 East ; that its bite, though inevitably mortal, produced no pain or 

 violent symptoms, and merely occasioned the gradual diminution 

 of pulsation, which was followed within twenty-four hours by a 

 profound sleep terminating in death. Galen assures us, that in 

 Alexandria, to shorten the punishment of criminals condemned to 

 death, they were bitten in the breast by an Asp j and Dioscorides 

 asserts that the wounds occasioned by the bite of this reptile are 

 unaccompanied by any local tumefaction, and that they are so 

 small that they appear to have been made with a very fine needle. 



XVI. 



ACANTHOPHIS BROWNII. 



Brown f s Acanthophis. 



Gen. Char. Shields double towards the extremity of 

 the tail, which terminates in a spinous process ; head 

 covered on the anterior part with large plates ; hind- 

 head tumid, with small scales similar to those on the 

 back ; no hollows behind the nostrils ; poisonous 

 fangs in the upper jaw. 



Spec. Char. Body blackish ; under Up whitish ; a 

 tranvcrsc groove before the nostrils ; tail short, with 

 the apex laterally compressed. 



* The Animal Kingdom, described and arranged in conformity with its orga. 

 nizalion, by Baron Cuvier, with additional descriptions by Edward (iriffitlt, 

 F.L.S. vol.ix.p. 382. 



