SWEDISH VIPER. 388 



a heart-shaped dusky spot, the divisions of which 

 are directed backwards. In the Memoirs of the 

 Swedish Academy is an account of a young man, 

 a labourer, bit by this animal on the toe of the 

 left foot: in six hours space the whole leg and 

 thigh were red and swelled ; the pulse intermitted, 

 and the patient was oppressed with pains in the 

 head and bowels, accompanied by lassitude, See, the 

 juice of the ash-leaves being in Sweden a popular 

 specific in similar cases, a glass of the expressed 

 juice, mixed with wine, was exhibited every half 

 hour, and a cataplasm of the bruised leaves ap- 

 plied to the wound : in the evening a glass of 

 warm olive oil was swallowed. By these means 

 the patient was greatly relieved ; slept well during 

 the night, and found the swelling much reduced 

 by the next morning ; but, neglecting to repeat 

 the same remedies, it again returned, and was 

 again dissipated by the same applications, and in 

 two or three days the patient recovered. Linnajus, 

 however, is said to have been not so fortunate in 

 his attempts to cure, by means of olive oil, a wo- 

 man wounded by this kind of viper, since the me- 

 dicine proved inefficacious, and the woman died. 



