(Jg WANDERINGS IN 



First There was no subsultus tendinum, or any visible alter- 



JOURNEY. 



ation in its breathing. During the tenth minute from 



the time it was wounded it stirred, and that was all ; and 

 the minute after, life's last spark went out. From the 

 time the poison began to operate, you would have con- 

 jectured that sleep was overpowering it, and you would 



have exclaimed, " Pressitque jacentem;, dulcis et alta 

 quies, placideeque simillima morti." 



There are now tAvo positive proofs of the effect of this 

 fatal poison ; viz. the death of the dog, and that of 

 the sloth. But still these animals were nothing remark- 

 able for size ; and the strength of the poison in large 

 animals might yet be doubted, Avere it not for what 

 follows. 



Experiment A large Avell-fcd OX, from nine hundred to a thousand 



upon an ox. 



pounds' weight, was tied to a stake by a rope sufficiently 

 strong to allow him to move to and fro. Having no 

 large Coucourite spikes at hand, it was judged necessary, 

 on account of his superior size, to put three wild hog 

 arrows into him ; one was sent into each thigh just above 

 the hock, in order to avoid wounding a vital part, and 

 the third was shot traversely into the extremity of the 

 nostril. 



The poison seemed to take effect in four minutes. 

 Conscious as though he would fall, the ox set himself 

 firmly on his legs, and remained quite still in the same 

 place, till about the fourteenth minute, when he smelled 



