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America, and other countries, there is evolved in the 
ftomach, during the long and tedious procefsof digedion 
in thefe animals, a vapour, or a gas, whofe odour is in- 
tenfely fetid. I have not, however, found that this is 
the cafe with the rattle-fnake, and other North Ameri¬ 
can ferpents that I h ve examined. But my own obfer- 
vationson this head have not been very minute. 1 have 
made inquiry of fome perfons, whofe prejudices again!! 
the ferpent-tribe are not fo powerful as my own, who 
are not afraid to put the heads and necks ot ferpents 
that are dellitute of venomous fangs, into their mouths, 
and have been informed, that they never perceived any 
difagreeable fmell to proceed from the breath of thefe 
animals. I have been prefent at the opening of a box 
which contained a number of living ferpents; and al¬ 
though the box had been fo clofe as to admit but a very 
fmall quantity of frefh air, although the oblervation was 
made in a.firull warm room, I did not perceive any pe¬ 
culiarly difagreeable effluvium to arife from the bodies of 
thefe animals. I am, moreover, informed by Mr. Charles 
Wilfon Pealc, who has.for a confiderable time had a 
rattle-fnake under his immediate care, that he has not 
obferved that any difagreeable vapour proceeds from this 
reptile. On the other hand, however, it is affected by 
fome creditable perfons, that a mod offeniive odour, fi- 
milar to that of flelh in the lad dage of putrefaction, is 
continually emanating from every part of the rattle- 
fnake. This odour extends, under certain circum- 
dances, to a confiderable didance from the body of the 
animal. Mr. William Bartram afifures me, that he has 
obferved horfes to be fenfible of, and greatly agitated 
by, it, at the didance of forty or fifty yards from the 
fnake. They Ihcwed, he fitys, their abhorrence, by 
fnorting, winnowing, and darting from the road, en¬ 
deavouring to throw their riders, in order to make their 
efcape. This fail, related by a man of rigid veracity, 
is extremely curious; and, in an efpecial manner, de- 
ferves the attention of thofe writers, who, like M. de 
la. Cepede, imagine that this fetid emanation from fer¬ 
pents is capable of aft'edling birds, at fmall didances, 
with a kind of afphyzy. It even gives Joint colour of 
probability to the dory related by Metrodorus, and pre¬ 
ferred in the Natural Hidory of Pliny, lib. xxviii. c. 14. 
“ Some experiments, which have been made in this 
city, (Philadelphia,) do not accord with thofe of Mr. 
Vofmaer oit fafeination. The birds, which were put 
into the cage that contained the rattle-fnake, flew or ran 
from the reptile, as though they were fenfible of the 
danger to which they were expofed. The fnake made 
many attempts to catch the birds, but could feldom 
fucceed. When a dead bird was thrown into the cage, 
the fnake devoured it immediately. He foon caught 
and devoured a living mole, an animal much more llug- 
gilh than the bird. A few days after, I had an opportu¬ 
nity of obferving the following circumdance. A fmall 
bird, our fnow-bird, had been put into a cage containing 
a large rattle-fnake. The little animal had been thus 
imprif ned for feveral hours when I fird law it. It ex¬ 
hibited no figns of fear, but hopped about from the floor 
cf the cage to its rood, and frequently flew and fat upon 
tiie fnake J s back. Its chirp vva3 no ways tremulous; 
but perfectly natural: it ate the feeds which were put 
into the cage, and by its whole adtions, I think, mod 
evidently manifeded that its fituation was not uneafy.” 
To demondrate that the phenomena of faicination 
cannot arife from the hidden virulence of an animal 
poifon, Dr. Barton obferves that, “upon inquiry, it is 
found that the power of bewitching different animals is 
not an exclulive gift of thofe ferpents which nature has 
provided with envenomed fangs : it is a gift which as 
extenlively belongs to that more numerous tribe of fer¬ 
pents, whofe bite is innocent, and whofe creeping motion 
is their only poifon. If there is any impropriety in this 
mode of expreflion, the impropriety has its fource in my 
feelings with refpec! to ferpents. Perhaps, no man ex- 
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periences the force and the miferies of this prejudice in 
a greater degree than I do. It is the only prejudice 
which, I think, I have not drength to fubdue. As the 
natural hidory of the ferpents is a very curious and i: - 
tereding part of the fcience of zoology ; as the United 
States att’ord an ample opportunity for the farther im¬ 
provement of the hidory of thefe animals, and as I 
have, for a long time, been anxious to devote a portion 
of my leifure time to an invedigation of their phyfio- 
logy, in particular, I cannot but exceedingly regret iny 
weaknefs and timidity, in this jefpedl. I had meditated 
a feries of experiments upon the rel'piration, the digef¬ 
tion, and the generation of the ferpents of Pennlylvania. 
But, I want the fortitude which it is neceffury to pofiefs 
in entering on the talk.” 
Dr. Barton informs us, that the principal food of the 
rattle-fnake is derived from the rana tribe, or larger fpe- 
cies of toads and frogs. He alfo obferves that the rattle- 
fnake, in turn, becomes a prey to the more rapacious 
birds of America, fuch as the vulture, fwallow-tailed 
hawk, great horned owl, &c. w'ho attack it in concert, 
and will foon kill and devour even the larged of thefe 
reptiles. It is alfo remarkable that fivine, whether 
wild or domedic, will eagerly attack and cat them, with¬ 
out fudaining the fmalled injury. 
CROTA'PHIC, adj. [zpoTaipo;, Gr. the temples.] 
Belonging to the temples. AJh. 
CROTA'PUIUM, f. A pain in the temples. AJIi. 
CROTCH, J. [croc, Fr.] A hook or fork.—There is 
a tradition of a dilemma that Moreton ufed to raife the 
benevolence to higher rates; and fome called it his 
fork, and fome his crotch. Bacon. 
Save elme, afli, and crab tree for cart and for plough. 
Save dep for a dyle of the crotch and the bough. TuJJcr. 
CROTCH'ET,yi [crochet, Fr. ] Inmufic; one of the 
notes or charadters of time, equal to half a minim, and 
double a quaver. See the article Music. 
As a good harper, dricken far in years, 
Into whofe cunning hands the gout doth fall. 
All his old crotchets in his brain he bears, 
But on his harp plays ill, or not at all. Davies. 
A fupport; a piece of wood fitted into another to fup- 
port a building ; [from croth, a fork. ] 
A dately temple (hoots within the Ikies, 
The crotchets of their cot in columns rife. Dryden. 
In printing, hooks in which words are included, [thus.] 
A perverle conceit; an odd fancy.—The horle fmelt 
him out, and prefently a crotchet came in his head how he 
might countermine him. L’EJlrange. 
CRO'TELS, or Croteying, [. The ordure or dung 
cf a hare. 
CRO'TENAY, a town of France, in the department 
of the Jura, and chiejf place of a canton, in the didric! 
of Poligny : two leagues fouth-ead of Poligny. 
CRO'TON, J'. [from to beat.] An infed! called 
a tick, from the noife it makes by beating its head 
againd wood. 
CRO'TON, J. [ygoruv, Gr. a tick, from the likenels 
of its berry to that inledt.] The' Base Ricinus, 
or Tallow Tree; in botany, a genus of the clafs 
monoecia, order monodelphia, natural order tricoc 
cas. The generic charadters are—I. Male flowers 
fmaller than the females- Calyx perianthium cylin- 
dric, five-toothed. Corollas petals in Ionic five, fcarcely 
larger than the calyx, oblong, obtufe; nectary five glands, 
affixed to the receptacle, fmall. Stamina: filaments ten 
or fifteen, fubulate, connedted at the bale, length of the 
flower; antherae roundilh, twin, II. Female flowers re¬ 
mote from the males, on the fame plant. Calyx : peri¬ 
anthium many-leaved ; leaflets ovate-oblong, eredt. Co¬ 
rolla ; petals as in the males, in fome fcarcely manifed. 
Pidillum : germ roundilh ; flyles three, reflex, fpread- 
ing, length of the flower, half two-cleft; ltigmas reflex, 
twc»cleft. Pericarpium : capfule roundilh, tluee-lobed 
at 
