56S 



COMMON VIPER. 



contrary, affirms, that this cannot be done with 

 impunity, though it may not produce symptoms 

 like those of the bite. Some of the older writers 

 equally disagree on this point ; Matthiolus affirm- 

 ing, that when sucked out of the wound it has 

 proved fatal, while others have admitted the gene- 

 ral opinion of the ancients, that it was harmless 

 when thus received ; and on this supposition de- 

 pended the practice of the Psylli, African tribes 

 who followed this mode of curing those who were 

 bitten by serpents, and who were employed, ac- 

 cording to Lucan, by Cato, in his march through 

 the Lybian deserts, for the recovery of his wounded 

 soldiers. Cato is also said to have assured his men, 

 who feared to drink of the fountains, lest they 

 should be infected by the poison of serpents, that, 

 however noxious the bites of those animals might 

 be, yet the poison must lose its effect when mixed 

 with the water and drank. 



*' Jam spissior ignis, 

 Et plaga, quam nullam Superi mortalibus ultra 

 A medio fecere die, calcatur, et unda 

 Rarior : inventus mediis fons unus arenis 

 Largus aquae : sed quem serpentum turba tenebat 

 Vix capiente loco : stabant in margine siccas 

 Aspides, in mediis sitiebant Dipsades undis. 

 Ductor, ut aspexit perituros fonte relicto, 

 Alloquitur : Vana specie conterrite leti 

 Ne dubita miles tutos haurire liquores : 

 Noxia serpentum est admisto sanguine pestis : 

 Morsu virus habent, et fatum dente minantur : 

 Pocula morte carent : dixit, dubiumque venenum 

 Hausit," 



