A LETTER OF FRANCESCO REDI Concerning Some Objections made upon his OBSERVATIONS About VIPERS Written to Monsieur BOURDELOT Abbot and Lord of Conde and S t. Leger And Monsieur ALEXANDER MORVS Printed in Italian at Florence 1670. Now made English Together with The SEQUEL of NEW EXPERIMENTS upon VIPERS and a Dissertation upon their Poyson Serving for a Reply to a Letter written by Signor Francisco Redi to M. Bourdelot and M. Morus Written in French by Moyse Charas Now likewise Englished LONDON Printed by T. R. for John Martyn Printer to the Royal Society at the Bell in S. Pauls Churchyard 1673. A LETTER OF FRANCESCO REDI Concerning some Objections made upon his Observations about Vipers Written to Monsieur BOURDELOT AND Monsieur ALEXANDER MORUS SIRS FROM your liberality I have received the Book entituled NEW EXPERIMENTS upon VIPERS learnedly composed by those noble Virtuosi who during some months had met in the House of M. Charas for that purpose I have read it over more then once with great contentment plainly finding that those Worthy persons have not scrupled by their eminent labours to confirm the Truth of those Observations which I also had made touching VIPERS until the year 1664. And indeed I think my self much obliged to their ingenuity and do frankly acknowledge that whatever worth that rude and plain piece of mine may have it hath received it from the honourable testimonies given to it in France where all the excellent Sciences and Arts do highly florish to the admiration of those that profess them in the other parts of Europe I intreat you Sirs that you would do me the favour to represent upon occasion these my candid and cordial sentiments and withall to declare the high esteem I have for that Book the authority of which is so venerable with me that having found therein some few things directly contrary to my own Experiments I have often doubted of my self and been almost ready to believe that I dream'd when I made and when I wrote them But some of my Learned Friends that were frequently present at those my Operations have laughed at me for that proneness of my belief and between jest and earnest assur'd me that those Experiments had by no means so succeeded with me in a dream Notwithstanding which without any regard to their asseverations I resolved to iterate and reiterate them and that with so great and careful diligence that I should greatly injure my self and Truth if I should not freely and candidly tell you that all those four or five Experiments which to those Gentlemen in France have not succeded do succeed with me in Italy without fail as they were formerly recorded by me on the contrary those will not succeed with me that have been made in France and are contrary to mine And since you may perhaps have the curiosity as to desire to know of what kind they are I shall here give you a brief account of them assuring my self that it will be acceptable to all the Lovers of Truth but especially to the Authors of the Book of the New Experiments who have been induced to write by no other motive then the sole desire either to confirm or to find the Truth of a matter so curious of which so many understanding men have written In my Letter then of the Observations about Vipers addressed to the Illustrious Lorenzo Magalotti speaking of the Poison of those creatures both what it is and in what part of the Body it resideth I affirm'd as I affirm still that the Poison of a Viper is nothing else then a certain yellowish liquor which lodgeth in the vesicles that cover the greatest teeth of the Viper and that that Juice is not only poisonous when it is ejected by the live Viper when she biteth but also when 't is collected from a dead Viper and even such an one that hath been dead many days provided it be made to pass into a wound and remain there Moreover I added that this same liquor when taken down into the stomach is not deadly no not so much as noxious And this was my opinion which hath been confirm'd to me by innumerable Experiments made with the greatest exactness I could employ But the Authors of the Book of the New Experiments do resolutely write That that above mention'd Liquor is not poisonous but a meer and a most innocent Saliva or Spitle Thence they go on to affirm for an undoubted and experimented Truth that the Viper hath no part of her body neither limb nor humor able to poison and that all her poison consists in the sole imagination of the Viper irritated and made angry by the Idea of vengeance which she hath conceived in her head by the means whereof the spirits being put into a violent motion are darted through the Nerves and at times through the Fibres of the cavities of the Teeth by which cavities those spirits are carried to infect the blood of the animal by the opening made with the biting teeth In short they conclude that if a Viper be not angry and have not that vindicative imagination her bitings do never poison but are very innocent causing no mischief at all to him in whom they are made For these are their words Pag. 36. in the English Version These considerations supported by many Experiments made by Us and to be related hereafter have induced me to call these GlandsSalival and to ascribe to them the very source of that yellow liquor which hath been so much decried and withal so little known and it nothing else but a pure and a very innocent Spitle I hope that those who shall take the pains of examining after me these Glands and this Juyce of the Gums will not stick to give me their suffrages Item p. 105. 106. But not to stay upon principles so slightly established and ill maintain'd for asmuch as we have on our side a great number of Experiments upon which we are grounded We say that this Juice is nothing but a pure and plain Saliva of which we have already observed the use and that this Juice contributes nothing to the venomousness of the Biting since being tasted and swallowed as we have often experimented it doth no hurt to man or beast and since also being put upon open wounds and upon incisions made in the flesh the same being rub'd therewith and mingled with the blood it annoys nothing at all notwithstanding the judgment of a Person very intelligent and particularly in this subject of Vipers who assures to have made a great number of Experiments which being contrary to ours the great opinion we have of the abilities and the sincerity of that famous man hath obliged us to employ the more care and exactness and to confirm our selves by a very great number of Experiments which have alwayes been found alike in the truth we here assert and of which we shall make evident and irrefragable proof Item p. cog We conclude therefore that the imagination
divers things made many more Experiments then he mentions he hath made upon this subject as appears by what he writeth p. 17 18. of his first Letter I find therefore that he hath no great cause to complain of me as he doth under the name of those Illustrious Authors to whom he ascribes my Book in his Letter for not having vouchsafed to make Experiments enow to confirm the truth of the Observations about Vipers contain'd in his first Letter of 1664. He had not I say great cause to speak of it after such a manner since I did do so but in imitation of him and because he had in the same Letter advanced and assured particulars which required not I should make more tryals then those I have described in my Book Although I can assure to have made more then I have recited He knows very well that about the end of pag. 23. of his first Letter he used these words Equel veleno shizza tutto fuora se non al primo almeno al secondo morso si che il terzo epiù volte l'ho esperimentato non è velenoso That is And that poison issues all out if not at the first at least at the second biting so that the third which I have often experimented is not venomous And if because of the respect I bear to the writings of a person of so high a reputation I thought among divers other Experiments that having made one and the same Viper every time vexed to bite five several Pigeons which all died and even the last of them sooner then the rest I might stop there I think Signor Redi hath nothing to reproach me with He had assured in his first Letter and assures the same in his latter That all the poison did lodge in the yellow liquor and that this poison was all exhausted if not at the first yet at least at the second biting and that he had often experimented that the third was no more venomous So that if I was perswaded that all the yellow Liquor must be come out by the second biting made upon the second Pigeon and if after that I have seen dye three other Pigeons by the fresh bitings of the same Viper that had bitten the two first I do not think that Sign Redi hath right to accuse me for not having done enough He might rather have done me that justice as to acknowledge that I had done more then enough to maintain my Reflexions and that I was obliged from that time to seek the poison elsewhere then in the yellow liquor in regard it did no longer intervene according to him in the three last bitings and that the three last Pigeons were as soon yea sooner dead then the two first of the death of which he could charge the yellow liquor If I could not find no more then Sign Redi in all the body of the Viper any other visible or palpable part that was venomous and that might justly be declared to be the seat of the poison and the true cause of the death which ensued upon the three last bitings he must not wonder if I have sought and found it in the vexed Spirits and if I have grounded my self upon the best evidence I could get from Experiments and Reason But since the chief motive of my tryals hath been the desire of exactly knowing the Truth concerning those matters having seen that Sign Redi pag. 31. of his last Letter hath desired I would make new experiments after his Objections against me To be the more assured of all I have been willing to give him that satisfaction in giving it to my self For in the moneth of May last in the Chymical Laboratory of the Royal Garden in the presence of two or three hundred by standers both Physitians and others capable to judge of it and worthy to be credited from amongst many live Vipers sent me out of Dauphine and divers parts of Poitou I chose a great Femal-Viper that was lusty enough notwithstanding the great way she came and having open'd her jawes I very carefully cleared and squeezed out of them at several repetitions all the yellow liquor contained in the bags of her gums and that also which might be diffused about the neighbouring parts with a fine piece of linnen cloth wound about the handle of a pen knife Which done I took the same Viper with Pincers about hér neck and angred her in making her to fasten her teeth into the end of her tail and in pressing from time to time her neck with those Pincers and immediately after I presented to her five Pigeons and two Pullets one after another to bite them in the most fleshy part of their Chest having irritated her every time of her biting I purposely wounded also six Pigeons and Pullets in divers places in the presence of all the company and let into the wounds some drops of the yellow liquor drawn from the Vesicles of newly enraged Vipers I laid both sorts a part and the company parted about an hour after before which time five of the Pigeons and Pullets that had been bitten were dead and the two remaining died about an hour after but the Pigeons and Pullets which I had wounded and in whose wounds I had put in some of the said juyce ailed nothing but that there appeared some lividness at the place wounded and such an one as might have been there from the sole wounding them and without any concurrence of that liquor Two days after I shew'd the company the same wounded Pullets and the same Pigeons which were very well and had their wounds almost perfectly healed up only there remain'd a little blewness about the wounded parts I would then have wounded the same animals again in other places and intromitted fresh yellow liquor some also of the by-standers proposed to let into one of these creatures some of this yellow liquor by that way of Transfusion that hath lately been made in divers parts of Europe of some stranger blood into the veins of men that so this juyce being mingled with the blood by the ordinary circulation it might be able to discover what ever it could do I readily complied with their motion whereupon the intromission of this liquor was attempted upon one of the same Pigeons that had been wounded two days before One Physitian and two Chirurgions did the work one after onother in making both the incision and the ligature of the most discernable vessels of the right wing But they let the Pigeon loose so much blood that it dyed soon after Seeing this I said that the Pigeon dyed only from the loss of its blood and not from the letting in of the yellow liquor and that it would be necessary one only Chirurgion of the Company shou'd make a new operation upon another of the same Animals that had been wounded 2 days before and upon whom that yellow Juyce had also been tryed The Operation was made accordingly at the same time
than as of a thing he was not at all assured of And though he may say that he hath had thoughts of it sooner than I who have not medled with Vipers but some years after his first Letter that what he had written of it gave me from that time occasion and a desire to seek for those Pipes and the Glanduls that might convey thither the yellow liquor that the belief he had of the Generation of this juyce in the whole head induced me to search for the Salival Glanduls higher and farther off than the place under the bottom of the vesicles and that I doubt not that himself might have found these true Glanduls if he would have taken pains for it I answer that since he hath not done it he ought not to be offended at my having labour'd for him and succeeded in so doing Neither hath he any right to deny that I have first found described and to the life represented the two heaps of Salival Glanduls of a Viper with all their Vessels as well for forming as conveying the yellow liquor into the Vesicles that cover the great teeth As to what Sign Redi saith of me speaking of the Authors of my Book that I have changed the words under the bottom into those at the bottom of the vesicles of the gums and there sought in vain for the two small Glanduls which he assures to have found there in all Vipers I answer that whilst he is critical as to the letter of the words I keep to the truth of the matter of fact And I can assure to have searched with much care not only in the whole bottom of the vesicles but every where under the bottom of them but have not found any whether great or small Glanduls nor any thing of the colour of a Glandul nor that came any way near to their form I put it then for a truth that there is not to be found any Glandul neither in nor under the bottom of the vesicles and that under the bottom there is nothing but the gristly bone that gives the shape to the nose of a Viper the two sharp ends of the two advanced bones of the skull to which the two great teeth are firmly annexed the conduit of the smell that of the hearing some small vein some little Artery some little Nerve the extremity of a Muscle and the two ends of the Salival Channels that discharge into the vesicles as you may see it in a manner described in the Anatomy made of it by me After this Signor Redi himself shews that it was impossible there should be Glanduls under the bottom of the vesicles since he saith pag. 38. of his last Letter Ne io poteva mai scrivere c. that is Nor could I at all write that those Glanduls lay in the bottom of the vesicles if I was of opinion that the yellow liquor did run into them after it had passed through the Salival conduits which yet I imagined might have their Origin from or connexion with those two Glanduls seen by me and therefore must needs be in a scituation a little distant from the vesicles and not in the bottom of them For since he saith to have meant that the yellow juyce took its course thorough the Salival conduits before its coming into the vesicles He cannot find a way long enough nor a distance great enough for the need of long conduits from the place under the bottom unto that which is in the bottom of the vesicles For there would have needed nothing but a little opening in the same bottom to receive the juyce issuing out of the two little Glanduls he hath spoken of And he shews sufficiently that he cannot maintain those two small Glanduls under the bottom where he would have them to be since now he will needs have them a little distant from the vesicles that he may find in the intervall a space sufficient for the vessels that are necessary to the course of this yellow liquor Besides that it is altogether impossible for two small Glanduls to furnish all that yellow liquor which presents it self in the vesicles since the two great heaps by me found in the two Temples and behind the Orbits of the eyes of a Viper can hardly furnish each about a drop in the space of 24 hours after the vesicles have been well voided Moreover it is very easie to judge by what Sign Redi saith in his First Letter that he understood not the Salival Glands were seated as they are on the two Temples nor so near the skull since he saith that what came into his phancy was that the head of a Viper did not convey that yellow juyce but by certain salival conduits For if he had been of another mind he would not have spoken but of glands or at least he would have begun with them before he had spoken of the conduits which shews also sufficiently that by this means he hath as 't were inverted the order of nature For instead of placing the Glands close to the skul and afterwards the salival conduits he hath begun with these and would have them immediately to receive the juyce of the Brain and to carry them to the vesicles of the gums and that his two pretended glanduls are seated between the extremity of these conduits and the bottom of the vesicles though none be there and it would be altogether useless they should be there because there are none but they that can at the beginning suck digest the humidities of the brain and the neighbouring parts and send them into the vesicles of the gums by the conduits appointed for this office But when Sign Redi accuses me of having taken the bottom of the vesicles for that which is under the bottom of them and of not having rightly understood as he speaks the Toscan tongue I may say that himself hath not very well apprehended nor duly explained the French terms used by me since he saith at the end of pag. 35. and at the beginning of p. 36. of the same last letter Sovra de chi gli Autori delle novelle experience affermano c. That is Whereupon the Authors of the New Experiments do affirm that they could never see such Glanduls as I had named but that instead of them they had found two others which they call Salival thus by them described p. 31. For neither in all that he hath afterwards taken the pains to transcribe out of my book on that subject nor in all the rest of my Section upon the Salival Glanduls he can have read that I say to have found two Glanduls but Glanduls there being a great difference in good French between Deux Glandes and Des Glandes two Glands and Glands And when describing the Glanduls I say that they are seated on the two sides of the Craniuns I say afterwards that there are many small ones joyned together which may be call'd Conglomerate Glanduls And yet more I speak of
affirm that I have made many tryal's with those Arrows of the Indians but have not found them in Tuscany of so fierce and malignant a nature as hath been related The Dogs I wounded with them dyed some of them in six others in seven others in twelve others in twenty four hours And their flesh was not putrisied nor fallen in pieces nor did their blood or exhaled steams at all kill other wounded Animals But I have often observed that if one intends to kiâ—l with these Arrows it is not enough to make a simple incision of the flesh but he must by art make them stick a while in the wound which is like to what happens in putting into wounds the powder of the dryed yellow liquor of Vipers Whence it is that those Savages make of Wood the sharp ends of those Arrows imbue them with poison and then joyne them to the Arrow stick in such a manner that those ends ever remain in the wound whether the Arrow do break or be drawn out as came to pass in the Siege of Jerusalem to those Heroes of Flandres Godofred and Robert of whom that great Florentin Poet thus singeth Sospingeva il monton quando è percosso Al Sig. de Fiaminghi il lato manco Si che travia s' allenta è vuol poi trarne Lo strale e resta il ferro entro la carne That is The Engine discharged the left side of the Flandrian Princes was so struck that they were thrust out of their way and when they would draw out the Arrow the Iron stuck within their flesh It is therefore necessary that the Arrows do stick for some time in the wound if they shall kill Whence I understand not how the vulgar comes to fansy that the Blades of Swords may be envenomed I do well remember that with the yellow liquor of Vipers and with other things esteemed venomous I have sometimes slightly tinged Lancets for letting of blood and with them have cut the vein of some Animal or other but death hath not followed upon it Let suspecting men rather beware of the Tents of Chirurgions for 't is too hard to cause death by poison'd Lancets or other such Iron instruments Hence it seems to me to savor of the fable though the case be different that Parisatis the old Queen of the Persians did poison her Daughter-in-law by the hands of her Carver poisoning the one side of the Knife and therewith cutting asunder a Fowl of which he gave to the young Queen to eat that part which the poisoned side of the Knife had envenomed eating the other part himself I could never see the truth of what is related of poisons killing by a meer and momentaneous contact or by vicinity alone as that Stirrups Sadles and Benches have been poisoned and thereby proved mortal Let him believe it that will I cannot And what a certain modern Writer relateth for a great truth concerning a prodigious accident hapned by a kind of Serpents bred in the Indies I must leave to himself who saith After I have spoken of these Serpents I presume it will not be unacceptable to give an account of the strange effect they produce If perchance it happen that they pass over a cloath or shirt dryed in the Sun there is wont to be bred in the Kidneys of those that use this cloath a certain kind of Serpents which little by little growing up do encompass the whole body and when their tayl reaches their head to conjoyn the circle then death is unevitable Wherefore to avoyd this mischief they kill them with Razors and Lancets to prevent their growth You have found above mentioned three persons wounded by the Arrows of Hercules namely Chiron Nessus and Philoctetes The two first dyed suddenly the third after a long sickness escaped If the caufes of this difference were to be given whether it be an History or a Fable I should say that Nessus and Chiron dyed because they were wounded whilst Hercules was yet living by Arrows freshly envenomed besides that Nessus was pierced through his heart as Ovid hath it Jámque tenens ripam missos cùm tolleret artus Conjugis agnovit vocem Nessóque paranti Fallere depositum quò te fiducia clamat Vana pedum violente rapit Tibi Nesse biformis Dicimus exaudi nec res intercipe nostras Si te nulla mei reverentia movit at orbes Concubitus vetitos poterant inhibere paterni Haud tamen effugies quamvis ope fidis equinâ Vulnere non pedibus te consequar Ultima dicta Re probat missâ fugientia terga fagittâ Trajicit extabat ferrum de pectore aduncum Quod simul evulsum est sanguis per utrumque foramen Emicuit mistus Lernaei tabe veneni But Philoctetes was wounded long after the death of Hercules whence 't is credible that those Arrows had lost much of their poisonous force even as the powder of the yellow liquor looseth of its force and the Arrows of Macasser by length of time grow languid which though they poison and kill if one be wounded therewith yet do they no hurt at all if their poison be swallow'd and taken into the stomach Which Experiment I have tryed upon two Doggs to whom I gave to swallow two pieces of flesh covered with the powder of the scrapings of such Arrows as also upon several Chickens to whom I gave the water to drink wherein those shavings had been a long time infused But to return after this long digression to the main thing you may by the above related and often repeated Experiments see that the poâ—son of the Italian Viper consists not in an imaginary idea of anger raised to revenge but rather in that yellow liquor which is voided out of the bags of the bigger teeth of Vipers which juyce if it chance to be spilled in the mouth and upon the Pallat of those animals is able to envenoin the spittle which moistens their throat I should think it very well worth while for those learned Authors of the book of the New Experiments that they would please to make their Experiments anew And if they shall find them conform to those they have already published and really contrary to mine then we may unanimously conclude that we have lighted upon a truth hitherto unknown which is That the Poison of the French Vipers consists in an imaginary Idea of a revengeful anger but that of the Italian ones hath its seat in that yellow liquor so often mentioned by me But if on the other side the French Experiments should not hold then it may be affirmed that the French as well as the Italian Vipers are of one and the same nature and have the same kind of poison Wherefore if in Italy the Viper in poison certainly lodges in that yellow liquor it will be no untruth in me to affirm that if by biting a Viper should have lost all that juyce residing in those bags and that also which may be furnisht
an Heap of Glanduls so far am I from speaking only of one or two Glanduls as Sign Redi hath represented me to have done And since in hopes of better maintaining his cause he hath given himself the trouble of copying word for word in his last Letter only the most general place of my Book and that which was the least contrary to it in my Section of the Salival Glands To shew therefore on my part that the Glands found by me are very different and that even they are quite another thing than the two small ones spoken of by him I thought my self obliged to transcribe hither out of my book what he thought not necessary for him For in the same Section p. 30. in the English version p. 33 I speak thus of the salival Glands These Glands are found in all the heads of Vipers both Males and Females they are seated on both sides and joining to the skull in the hind-part of each round of the eyes and at the same height with them There are many small ones joined together which may be call'd Conglomerate Glands that are easily distinguishable by their form and colour which is different from the Muscles neighbouring to them and of which there is one that may be call'd Temporal which in part covers them by its extremity This heap of Glands appears there of the bigness of the neighbouring eye and extending it self in length continues its progress in the Orbite of the eye below and in part behind the eye Each Gland hath its little Lymphatique vessel which parts from it as from a little Teat and goes disgorging it self into a greater vessel that runs all along and under these Glands and passeth into the Vesicle of the Gum and terminates in the midst of the Articulation which the root of the great teeth makes with the advancing corner of the said Orbite and with the little Bone which by its other end is articulated in the middle of the upper jaw This principal vessel which being consider'd alone is very little in appearance but is not so in effect seeing it receives the discharge of all the small vessels that come from each Gland empties it self into the bag of the gums and carries thither that Salival juyce which may have qualities approaching to those of the Saliva or Spitle of man or of the foam or drivel of divers other Animals The Nerve which serves in the Nostrils to the faculty of Hearing runs for some space along these Glands which are also as I have already said small Veins and Arteries But having well consider'd the substance quality scituation of these Glands we judged their formation not to be in vain but that their Use in all likelyhood was to receive the humidities both of the Brain the Eyes and the neighbouring parts and that their discharge was very convenient and even very necessary to the parts which receive that liquor as well for moistening the ligaments of the great teeth and to keep them in a condition of bending at such time when the Viper will bite as for bedewing and increasing the teeth which Nature hath formed and set in the midst of this Juice For the rest examining and tasting the Glands as well as the Juice we found a taste altogether like that of the Gums which Sign Redi hath described namely very near the taste of the Oyle of Almonds without all bitterness though it leave a while after a little acrimony in the mouth such as may be discern'd in all kind of Spitle I could add here what I said of the Salival Glands of Snakes their difference from those of Vipers and I could alledge that I believe my self to be likewise the first Discoverer of them But because so prolix a Citation might prove tedious and that those that desire to have more light therein may easily find the rest in the above-cited Section of my Book I shall not transcribe it hither Mean time 't is very easie to judge from my whole Discourse and from the exact Description made by me of these Glands and their neighbouring parts that they were not known to me by Phancy Their scituation very distant from that place under and even from the sides of the bottom of the vesicles of the gums shews sufficiently that they are neither in nor under the bottom of those vesicles as Sign Redi hath pretended and their great number makes it appear that 't is quite another thing than the two litle Glanduls he speaks of and which are not to be found neither I intreat the Reader well to consider those I have discover'd as they are represented in my third Cutt as well in that part where the Temples are of a Head cut mark'd C where their shape and scituation is represented to the life as they shew themselves before they are sever'd as in the inclosure of a Vipers sceleton which is there also exhibited where he may see them in their upper and lower appearance drawn out of the Head and by their ligaments fastned to the hind-part of the Eyes and to the body of the Brain I came not to the full knowledge of them till after much pains and a very long and particular search I did not content my self to seek a great while in the bottom and under the bottom of the vesicles of the gums but to find these Glands I have flead and dissected a great number of Vipers heads as dextrously and nicely as I could and I have used all means well to examine them among others I caused many heads to be gently boyled in a little water as well to consider the divers sutures of the skull and to separate all the parts from it as to remark well the form and the connexion of these Glands to draw them out whole and joined as they are to the Eyes and to divers bodies of the Brain to which the marrow of the Spaine is annex'd and to have all these parts entire and such as I have caused them to be engraven Me thinks that all these cares follow'd by so good success may well deserve my Discovery of this great number of Salival Glands with all their vessels should not be envied me by Sign Redi considering I do sufficiently appear to him incapable of envying him any of those sine things he hath already found or may find hereafter in his curious re-searches There remains no more for me to do me thinks than to satisfie Sign Redi as well concerning the Uncertainty wherein he is touching the Power of the Volatil Salt of Vipers for the curing of their bitings as about the Objections by him made against my Experiments of the Head and Neck of a Viper for curing Doggs bitten by it and which I have also thought should be efficacious to cure men in the like case He opposes nothing to the Vertue of this Volatil Salt but that he remits the Reader to the time he will take Chymically to prepare this Salt and to make the