126 
THE CABINET OF NATURAL HISTORY, 
tail, (which it always does when irritated and alarmed,) 
it produces a noise like a rattle. As this is to be heard at 
a considerable distance, it affords time for escape to those 
animals that otherwise might be in the greatest danger 
from its approach. This animal, however, never inflicts 
a wound upon man, excepting when trodden upon, or irri- 
tated; but, on the contrary, flies from his advance when- 
ever he finds the least chance of escaping; and, when we 
add to this circumstance, the precautions observed by the 
inhabitants, when engaged in the woods where these ani- 
mals prevail, it will easily be understood, why wounds 
from the bite of a Rattlesnake, are not of very frequent 
occurrence. 
When, however, the animal is accidentally or inten- 
tionally irritated, it immediately throws itself into a cir- 
cle, pushes back its head, and with great rapidity and 
violence, injects its deadly poison into the object of its 
vengeance; and according to the degree of irritation, re- 
peats its attack as often as its strength will allow. 
The bite, at first, resembles the sting of the wasp or 
bee; but the parts rapidly swell, become livid, and extend 
to the body and head, followed by delirium, fainting fits, 
convulsions, general swelling and discoloration of the 
body, and death; which takes place, in some instances, in 
three hours after the bite has been inflicted; at other 
times, at more distant periods; and if the weather has not 
been extremely hot, or the animal much enraged, the 
wounded man has a distant chance of recovery. 
This tardiness in the operation of the Rattlesnake poi- 
son, may be attributed to climate; as we know that the 
whole of the snake tribe become torpid as the winter ap- 
proaches; and that they increase in power and activity 
upon the temperature of the atmosphere advancing, when 
their bites become in proportion formidable and danger- 
ous. Much may also depend upon a large blood-vessel 
being wounded, or only one of its extreme branches; the 
poison, in the former instance, being conveyed more ra- 
pidly into the system than in the latter, when there may 
be time for its being so diluted as considerably to weaken 
its efficacy. This observation will apply to the bites of 
all venomous animals; and it will serve to explain, why 
we sometimes hear of very rapid effects being produced 
by treatment, and at other times, why the patient recovers 
even without the trial of any remedy. 
A circumstance is related which strongly evinces the 
great activity of the Rattlesnake poison. 
“An American farmer was one day mowing with his 
negroes, when he by chance trod on a Rattlesnake, that 
immediately turned upon him and bit his boot. At night, 
when he went to bed, he was attacked with sickness; he 
swelled, and before a physician could be called in, he died. 
All his neighbours were surprised at the suddenness of 
his death ; but the corpse was buried without examination. 
A few days after, one of his sons put on his father’s boots, 
and at night when he pulled them off, he was seized with 
the same symptoms, and died on the following morning. 
At the sale of the effects, a neighbour purchased the boots; 
and on putting them on, experienced the like dreadful 
symptoms with the father and son. A skilful physician, 
however, being sent for, who had heard of the preceding 
affair, suspected the cause, and by applying proper re- 
medies recovered the patient. The fatal boots were 
now examined, and the two fangs of the snake were dis- 
covered to have been left in the leather, with the poison 
bladder adhering to them. They had penetrated entirely 
through; and both the father, the son, and the purchaser 
of the boots, had imperceptibly scratched themselves with 
their points on pulling them off” 
The Cobra de Capello, or Hooded Serpent , to which 
are given the different appellations of Coluber Naja, 
Spectacle Serpent, and the like, is a native of the East 
Indies, and of South America; and is still a more formida- 
ble animal than the Rattlesnake, as its bite is stated to be 
followed by certain and speedy death. A near relation of 
ours, who has passed many years in India, informed us 
that he has been witness to three persons being killed in 
seven minutes from its bite; and we have other instances 
of the rapidity of this most destructive poison when re- 
ceived into the human frame — a circumstance not to be 
wondered at, when we take into consideration the heat of 
the country of which it is a native; though the effects of 
the poison, like that of the Rattlesnake, will no doubt be 
varied by season, and by the manner in which the bite be 
inflicted. 
This animal is from three to six feet in length, and 
about four inches in circumference. Its head is smaller 
in proportion to its body, than either the Rattlesnake or 
the Viper; having on its neck a tumour or loose mass of 
integument, flat, and covered with scales, and on the top 
of it, a very conspicuous patch resembling a pair of spec- 
tacles. Its colour is a pale rusty brown, and beneath, a 
bluish white tinged with yellow — the tail, unlike the 
other serpents described, tapering to a slender, sharply 
pointed extremity. Its eyes are peculiarly shining, fierce, 
and bright. Its fangs, with which it inflicts its deadly 
wound, are placed in the upper jaw, and their mechanism 
is the same as that of other venomous serpents. Like 
them it retreats before human pursuit; but, when irritated, 
it is much more active in its movements, and more decided 
in its attacks. When preparing to assail its enemy, the 
body is erected, the head is bent down so as to admit of 
the integuments of the neck being extended over it in the 
