TIATTLE SNAKE. 
a relic of a vulgar error, bv which it v/as sup- 
posed that these creatures themselves could be 
charmed, at the same time that thev possessed 
the power of charming: thev aver, that ani- 
mals are so far from running down the throat 
of the Rattle Snake when in captivit\', that 
the reptile vriii not then eat any thing, but 
actually dies for want of subsistence. Thif 
scepticism, perhaps, is cnlv an effeCL of that 
modern philosophv, which doubts of evers' 
thing that cannot be solved by human reason : 
and, where that sort of evidence is not pro- 
curable, denies the fact, to discharge the ar- 
gument. That there is a particular effluvia 
of the eye in man, as well as in irrational 
animals, which is capable of a kind of fasci- 
nation, h<:s been admitted by many who ab- 
jure the marvellous, and are bv no means the 
dupes of a blind credulity : mav not the Rattle 
Snake, then, possess a qualitv, in a superior 
degree, proportioned to it's malignit)', which 
is at least sensibly felt in other creatures ? 
Dr. Owen gives an account of a singular 
method of destroying the Rattle Snake, by 
holding 

