the Vipers have been boyled because it retaines the greatest vertue of them Neither do I see why one should stint the quantity or limit the time of the use of it that depending from the degree of the illness and from the constitution of the persons that will make use thereof And although we know Vipers to be a very Alterative Medicine and that their chief use is onely for their Medicinal qualities yet if taken as an Aliment there is no danger at all to eat of their flesh or to drink of their broth somewhat more or somewhat less It is also to be moderately salted and those that have any of the Fixed Salt of Vipers shall do well to employ it You may also adde to it some of its Volatile Salt if you will have the Flesh of Vipers work more powerfully As to the Vertues of Viper-flesh according to the consent of innumerable Authors whose opinion is supported by reason and truth confirmed by many Experiments we can say that they are very great and that there is no Animal in Nature that affords such and so many And we wonder not at all that the Antients have so frequently employ'd Vipers in their Hieroglyphicks and adorned their Medals with them thereby to design very advantagious things for the publick and for private men forasmuch as this Animal is very capable to furnish them For the use of it preserves the natural heat in a very good temper it repaireth the same and restoreth it when 't is altered it yields a very good food helps digestion by its heat which is not excessive it retards old age and prolongeth life by a property which Vipers have to maintain in good plight the whole habit of the Body Whence it is that many have believed that both Staggs and Eagles induced to it by a natural instinct eat all the Vipers they can meet with and that 't is upon that score that their life is extraordinary long There is also adscribed to Vipers and not without reason a Renewing vertue capable to make young again which they tacitly shew by casting their skin twice a year and renewing themselves by the cover of a new skin This joyned to the subtile parts of which the Viper is composed and to its lively and daring aspect testifies it to be pertinent enough that Authors have attributed to it the vertue of clearing and strengthning the Eyes Vipers have also a very particular vertue of Cleansing the whole Body and particularly the Bloud and of expelling through the pores of its skin all the superfluities Whence it may be inferred that they are very proper to cure the Itch Tettar Erysipelas or Saint Anthonies fire Measels Small Pox and the Leprosy it self the use of them being long enough continued though I cannot well believe what Galen saith That the Wine wherein one onely Viper is choaked is able to cure so great an Evil and which doth not so easily yield to remedies Vipers also may by removing all the impurities and obstructions of the Body and skin cause beauty therein and upon this account it is that many Ladies in Italy use them for their ordinary food By the good nourishment they yield by the purity they give to the blood and to all the parts and by the liberty they give to the Spirits to do their functions therein they are a great relief to persons in a Consumption and to those that are emaciated by long diseases and wasted by tedious Feavers There are even Authors who assure that the use of them is capable to cure the Venereal disease for which we doubt not but they may serve much if they do not altogether cure it Their mundifying vertue joyned to the Alexiterial makes them also very proper to expell all sorts of poysons and even the Plague it self and all contagious diseases They are also very contrary to all putrefaction which commonly is the matter and source of most maladies whence it comes that those who use them are not subject to diseases unless they live irregularly which is able to destroy all the good which the use of Vipers might afford We might here specify many other sicknesses that might be cured by the use of Viper-flesh but we think not fit to do so since the general vertues which we have noted may suffice to make men apply the use to many particular Evils that may need it Yet we shall describe in the Chapter ensuing the uses and Vertues of the parts of Vipers taken as a Medicine without any great preparation CHAP. III. Of the Vertues of several parts of the Viper and of their Vse in Physick THE Vertues which the Flesh of Vipers is able to communicate to those who eat them for nourishment are doubtless very considerable but they are not the onely ones that Vipers are endow'd with and not to alledge superfluous things we shall confine our selves to the principal Vertues of which we have experimented the greatest part It is very certain that the Head of a Viper broyled and swallowed healeth the biting of that animal The Heart and the Liver may do the same Reason and Experience have confirm'd it and therefore in an urgent occasion those parts may be very usefully employed The application of the Blood of a Viper to the Biting as also that of its Head bruised are neither to be rejected nor is that of the Entralls but these applications alone are not capable to cure it for the subtlety and quicness of the Spirits carrying them with great speed into the body there must be used internal specifick remedies to repulse them and you may also very pertinently repeat at the mouth the use of the head heart liver and the other parts of a Viper without fearing to take too much of them because those parts can never do hurt and they alwayes produce some good effect They may also serve for all sorts of venoms and poysons and against all sorts of contagious and epidemical diseases Divers Authors assure that the Head of a Viper hung about the neck hath a very particular quality to cure the Squinancy and all the distempers of the Throat and that the Brain of a Viper wrapt up in a little skin and likewise hung about the neck is very good to make the Teeth of children come forth which effect others believe to be due to the great teeth of Vipers If we had experimented it we could then speak with more certainty The remedies are easily practicable and withal harmless wherefore those who need them may make tryal of them Some also have affirmed that the Liver of a Viper swallowed keeps one from being bitten either by this Animal or by any other serpent and that the powder of Vipers hath the same efficacy But we must not rely upon their report we onely believe that the Liver swallowed is capable to heal the biting of a Viper like the heart flesh and other parts of which we have spoken and that it may much facilitate the delivery of
NEW EXPERIMENTS UPON THE VIPER BY M. CHARAS NEW EXPERIMENTS UPON VIPERS Containing also an Exact DESCRIPTION Of all the Parts of a VIPER The SEAT of its POYSON AND THE Several EFFECTS thereof Together with the EXQVISITE REMEDIES That by the Skilful may be drawn from Vipers as well for the Cure of their Bitings as for that of other Maladies Originally written in French By M. CHARAS of Paris Now rendred English Multa Patres olim Nos plurima plura Futuri Invenient Cupidis nec porta negata Novorum LONDON Printed by T. N. for J. Martyn Printer to the R. Society at the Bell in S. Pauls Church-yard and a little without Temple-Bar 1670. THE Preface MAny will perhaps wonder that after so many famous Authours Antient and Modern who have written of VIPERS I should yet undertake to labour in an Argument which in all likelihood they should have exhausted But if reflexion be made on the many wonders that are found in the Body of this Animal it will be easily granted that it cannot be inquir'd into with too much exactness and that it is not a work that can be finish't at one or two sittings What Observations have been left us by knowing men although they be not carried to their perfection may be very useful to those that are come after them to make them discover what had escaped their diligence And without this aid I should not have had the confidence of undertaking this Work in which I have propos'd to my self three main things that may much contribute to the illustration of the History concerning Vipers The first is to examine sundry Observations of the Antients which have hitherto pass'd for true though most of them are not so The second to give an accompt of other Observations which have been unknown to our Predecessors The third to find in the Viper which causeth so many mischiefs Specifick Remedies against its Biting which had not been discover'd before and may serve to overcome many troublesom Distempers which the ordinary Remedies were not able to conquer The Enterprise certainly is bold and I confess I should never have compass'd it what hope soever I might have conceived of it had I not been assisted by some knowing Physitians whose light hath been very helpful to me Their Modesty permits not I should here name them it sufficeth the Publick to know that a good part of the rare things in this Treatise is due to them They had the kindness to meet often at my House for the space of three months and there to see made exact Dissections of Vipers which by my care were brought to me from all Parts of this Kingdom and to see also Experiments tryed of their biting upon divers Animals and to examine their Bodies immediately open'd after their death to discover the true cause of it and to prescribe Remedies answerable to their Conjectures and to take notice of the success of the same In dissecting all these Vipers we were willing to see the parts which Authors have taken notice of and which have also been represented in the Books of some of them And comparing them with the Natural ones that were before our Eyes we found great omissions of very considerable parts an introduction of some imaginary ones and representations and scituations of several that were ill designed and ill enough placed It was thought fit I should endeavour to perform something more accomplish't And Monsieur Bosse whose skill and dexterity in the Art of Designing and Graving is known and esteem'd of all the World in things of a far sublimer nature than the Anatomy of Vipers being happily present at one of our meetings and taking great pleasure to oblige his Friends expressed from that very time that he was very willing to second my intentions And having received from me a sufficient number of Subjects hath taken the pains to design them after the life and thereupon to grave all the considerable parts of this Animal In a word I have omitted nothing of what might render my Design answerable to the wishes of all Learned and Curious men Now as those who speaking of a matter that hath been often handled by others cannot but must often repeat again what hath been already said of it I thought I was not to scruple to enlarge my self a little that I might not give an imperfect Anatomy of the Viper of which it was fit enough to describe as well the great number of the true parts that have been known to our Ancestors as the new ones by me found after them I say nothing of my way of Writing From a person of my profession you are not to expect the Elegancy and Purity of our Tongue I thought it enough for me to deliver my self clearly and intelligibly which is in my opinion all that could be expected from me For the rest I think I am the first that hath given to France a Treatise of the Viper in its Native Language Those who understand no other Languages may think themselves obliged by it in regard they would else have been ignorant of abundance of things that deserve to be known Farewell THE TABLE Of the Titles of all the Contents in this Book Anatomy of the Viper Chap. I. GEneral observations upon the Viper Description of the Viper Ch. II. Of the Parts which present themselves first of all Of the exteriour shape of the Viper Sect. I. Of the skin of the Viper Sec. 2. Ch. III. Of the parts of a Vipers Head Of the Vipers Nose Sec. 1. Of the Skull Sect. 2. Of the Brain Sec. 3. Of the Eyes and their principal Parts and of those that serve for Hearing Sect. 4. Of the Bones of the Head that are articulated to the Skull Sec. 5. Of the Teeth Sec. 6. Of the Nerves Veins Arteries and Muscles of the Head in general Sec. 7. Of the Salival Glands of the Viper Sec. 8. Ch. IV. Of the other Bones of the Viper and of the principal parts that depend therefrom Ch. V. Of the other internal parts of the Viper Of the Tongue Sec. 1. Of the Wind-pipe and the Lungs Sec. 2. Of the Heart and Liver Sec. 3. Of the Gall and Pancreas Sec. 4. Of the Weasand and Stomach Sec. 5. Of the Guts kidneys Fat and a Coat wrapping them up under-neath Sec. 6. Ch. VI. Of the Organs of Generation in a Viper Sect. 3. Of the parts of a Male Sec. 1. Of the parts of Generation in a Female Sec. 2. Of the Generation and Birth of Vipers Sec. 3. The Explication of what is represented in the first Cut. The Explication of what is exhibited in the second Cut. The Explication of what appears in the third Cut. Experiments upon Vipers Ch. I. A Biting of a Viper happn'd to a Man Ch. II. Experiments of Vipers upon divers Animals Experiments on Dogs The Biting of a Dog in his Ear. Another Biting upon a Dog The Biting of a little Dog Another Dog bit in the Tongue Ch. III.
it very necessary to return to the use of our first inward remedy which had struck the great stroke and had had a manifest good operation I mean the Volatil Salt of Vipers This was in the morning of the fourth day after the biting So we gave him half a drachm of that Salt dissolved in four ounces of Carduus water and we order'd that he should be well covered to make him sweat This medicine did work according to our expectation and desire for the Patient not onely did sweat abundantly but found a very considerable amendment in all the ill Symptoms that had remain'd His pain about the navil was almost not sensible the tumor of his Lips and that which was in the region of the Liver Breast and under the Arm-pits vanish't and that of the shoulder Arm and Hand was much abated as well as the redness and pain We thence judg'd that we should certainly cure the rest and to compass it we gave the next morning to our Patient a like dose of that Volatil Salt of Vipers which made him sweat again very largely the pain of the Navil ceased altogether the swelling of the shoulder was wholly gone and that of the whole arm and hand was yet much more abated as well as the redness and pain And not to leave the cure imperfect though the patient found himself exceedingly amended we gave him the next day another such dose again and the day following one more whereby the whole swelling all the redness and all the pain of the arm hand and the finger itself were dissipated Mean while there was applyed to the finger a little plaister to cicatrize the incisions that had been made there and which were healed three or four dayes after Which did not hinder the Patient to goe abroad and to doe his business as well as if he had never been bitten by the Viper Those that shall read this History and examine all the circumstances of it the several and surprising accidents of the biting of the Viper which we saw and the effectual operation of the remedies employed to remove them will therein find ample matter to exercise their reasoning upon and will soon judge that we had cause accurately to inquire as we have done into all the parts of a Viper to know them well and what they can doe to make a great number of Experiments upon all its parts and to apply ourselves to the preparation of the excellent remedies that may be drawn from the body of this Animal The Extraordinary effect of its Volatil Salt in stopping and in overcoming first of all the Venome which so violently exercised its tyranny over the natural heat and all the noble parts and which doubtless would have altogether triumphed over them the activity penetration and force of the same Salt going to find out the poyson and expelling it from the remotest parts of the body where it had fortified itself and whence it endeavoured to regain the place it had lost and where in the mean time it seem'd to despise the ordinary most powerful remedies All this I say is sufficient to make it to be wondred at and men will doubtless averr that the ill which Vipers are able to cause and which every one may easily avoide is nothing in comparison of such a remedy as the same Vipers can furnish and which may serve not onely to heal their bitings but also to overcome many other obstinate diseases against which the ordinary remedies perform nothing not to speak of many other good preparations made of Vipers which we intend to describe hereafter EXPERIMENTS Of the Biting of Vipers upon other Animals CHAPT II. Experiments upon Dogs THE effects that are surprising are wont sensibly to touch the Minds of Men and they are they which excite the Curious to inquire into the Cause of them and although this do alwayes precede those yet it would not be known and we should not so much as be aware that it was if the effects thereof did not first appear Being therefore to treat of the Biting of Vipers we hope it will not be thought amiss if we begin with the recitation of the Experiments by the Examples of its effects And not to be tedious to the Reader having reviewed all that hath been experimented at my house both the last and this year I shall confine my self to what I think deserves most to be communicated what serveth most to our purpose and what may give most satisfaction to the Curious One of the most considerable Experiments was made on a Dog which was bitten by an angred Viper at the upper lipp The dog was not much moved at it at first but little by little grew sad and his jaw began to swell a little while after he vomited up the last food he had taken and dunged Then some bread flesh and water being offred him he would touch none of it he remain'd in a prostrate posture without complaining the place of the pricking waxed livid and this lividness extended it self to the neck and as far as the breast as did also the swelling At length he dyed but not till fourty hours were past after the biting His belly appear'd not swoln and without we observ'd nothing extraordinary but the tumour and lividness in the part prick't and thereabout The Dog being opened after his death we found in the tronc of the vena cava a little bloud curdled and we noted that the rest of the bloud in this place in the heart and every where else was of a dark colour and of a very ill consistence as if it were blood in part dissolv'd and corrupted The Stomach appear'd of a darkish colour but the Mesentery and the Gutts were darker We found no alteration in the Heart Liver Lungs nor the Spleen all these parts being of a very fine colour and in their natural condition The Biting of a Dog at the Ear. THis Dog howled from the time he felt the biting and continued his howling for half an hour then he ceased to howl and to complain The place prick't wax'd livid and swell'd as also did the Neighbouring parts This dog vomited not but voided some excrements which seemed natural He would neither eat nor drink no more then the first and he soon dyed having liv'd no longer then twenty four hours after he had been bitten We saw outwardly nothing un-common but the lividness and swelling at the neighbouring part and thereabout But having opened him we found all the inward parts in the same condition with those of the former dog 'T is true we did not finde in this dog any coagulated blood neither in the heart nor the vena cava nor else where but it was of an obscure colour and of an odd consistence and in a visible disposition to coagulate Another biting of a Dog WE had a Dog bitten by an irritated Viper at the tip of his Nose the dog howled when he felt himself bitten but was soon appeased falling to
in a bottle exactly closed to use it upon occasion This Salt thus rectified smells not of Fire and hath nothing but its own natural strong and penetrating scent There may perhaps be found Artists who will take it ill that we have been so large and so particular in exactly setting down all the things that are to be observed in preparing and rectifying this Salt But it is not for them that we have done it but for those who not knowing it will be glad to learn it We have given them sincerely the true means used by ourselves which they may also practise in preparing and rectifying the Salts of the parts of all Animals Those that have any tincture of Chymistry will here find enough to teach themselves as we have done and do daily Mean time they must not be offended that there remain with us upon this subject such things which could not be said nor well comprehended but by those that have labour'd a great while in this Art Intelligent persons that shall examine our proceeding or have a mind to experience the same will find our ingenuousness by finding the success of all we have made them expect together with the facility we give of the Operation They will also find that our way of filling the Retort as far as the neck is more proper than that of leaving a third part empty as some would have it in the Distillation of the Bones Horns and other dry parts of Animals although those that understand it practice it not but in matters that will melt and may break the Retort or let something run out by the beak when 't is fill'd too high But in dry substances as are our Vipers and the Horns and Bones of Animals Crabs-eyes Stones and the like it is enough to leave this neck empty to give vent to the parts raised from the matter and that are to go into the Recipient They will also acknowledge that our way to leave the Oyl among the other substances when we will sever them by subliming and rectifying them is not without reason in regard that the Oyl hath commonly with it much Volatile Salt which leaves it and afterward riseth in the Rectification We esteem also that this Preparation will be preferr'd before many others that are operose and have little method in them and among others before the Rectification which some pretend to make by the addition of Spirit of Salt to the Phlegme and to that which is call'd Spirit and to the Volatil Salt which instead of rectifying this Salt and of making it purer and better changes its nature and instead of subliming it to the Head and the top of the Body as they have pretended it did after the Phlegm was risen the Spirit of Salt riseth it self in its first form in its smell colour and taste leaving at the bottom the Salt which is there found like fixed having the tast and the other qualities of the Spirit of Salt but being lessen'd of two thirds of its weight That kind of men have fill'd Books with many Preparations they understand not nor have experimented For forgetting among other things in the process of this such methods as are absolutely necessary and without which they do nothing they promise impossible successes and putting the Cart before the Horses they fix the Salt when they pretend to sublime it and so very unadvisedly prostitute themselves to shame and confusion For instead of rectifying first the Volatile Salt as more intelligent men might have taught them of whom they had borrowed this Preparation and of subliming it and of separating it by this means from other parts they labouring to disguise the Process have retrenched the main and most necessary part of it and employed at the very first that method which they should have observ'd to fix it believing that that would sublime it not considering that having by that means inverted nature the success would prove answerable to it I set a side their unwarrantable practice of adding a pound of luke-warm water among the substances found in the Recipient after the first distillation since it is an Augmentation not onely useless but troublesome of that Phlegme which must needs be separated Now although one part of this Salt remaining in the Body of the Limbec may yet afterwards becom Volatil by mixing it with some Lixiviat Salt and making it to sublime yet that is not done but with a new and very great loss of its weight nor is the taste of it better than of that which shall have been well rectified according to the method we have before described since the Lixiviat Salts by reviving it in part give it as displeasing a smel as the former We may further add here that the use of tall and strait-neck't Bodies is much more proper for this Rectification than the use of Matrasses with long necks myself having experimented that the Phlegme fals back again more easily and that the Volatil Salt riseth purer in the Bodies of our fashion of which the Figure may be seen on the Title page where also is that of the Retort and the Recipient for the first Distillation Now although the same men that have given us cause to reprehend them have affirmed contrary to truth that there is no fix't Salt in the parts of Animals To prove that there is and to benefit by that of the Viper Take what shall remain in the Retort commonly called the Caput Mortuum which you will find of the form and colour of Coales calcine it in a Furnace or to save expences in a Potters Oven till all become white and of the form of Chalk pulverize it well and make it boyl in a competent quantity of water that may receive and dissolve the Salt filter it and make it euaporate and consume You 'l find at the bottom a coagulated Salt though in a small quantity and such an one as that of five pounds of Viper-bones well calcin'd we have obtain'd no more than three ounces of fix't Salt This Salt hath a very sharp and poynant taste it is Lixiviat and approaching enough in divers regards to the fixt Salt of Tartar You 'l find on the Filter the Terrestrial part stripp'd of all its vertue which then may justly be call'd Caput Mortuum And thus you 'l have the Phlegme that which is call'd Spirit the Volatil Salt the Oyl the Fixt Salt and the Earth into which all the parts of the Viper have been reduced in their separation CHAP. VII Of the Fixation of the Volatil Salt of Vipers ALthough the Volatile Salt of Vipers have in it to speak truth nothing offensive but its strong and piercing Smell and that those who shall take into their mouth the weight of a good number of grains cannot receive from it any other trouble but that of this Sent which yet soon passeth away this Salt leaving afterwards a saline and very agreeable taste yet notwithstanding many persons offended with the piercing odour which is
Experiments of the Biting of a Viper made upon Pigeons and Pullets Ch. IV. Of the Poyson of a Vipers biting and of its operation Ch. V. Experiments of the yellow liquor contained in the little Baggs of the greater Teeth made on several Animals Ch. VI. Experiments of the Gall Eggs Guts Heads and the Blood of a Viper made on divers Animals Ch. VII Sundry other Experiments made upon Vipers Ch. VIII General Reflexions on all those Experiments Remedies drawn from Vipers Ch. I. Of the different choice that may be made of the parts of Vipers Ch. II. Of the Use of the parts of a Viper as to its Nourishing vertue Ch. III. Of the Vertues of several parts of a Viper in Physick Ch. IV. Of the Powder and Trochisques of Vipers Ch. V. Of the Viper-Salt of the Antients Ch. VI. Of the Volatil Salt of Vipers of their Fix't Salt and of the other parts that are separated by Distillation Ch. VII Of the Fixation of the Volatil Salt of Vipers Ch. VIII Of the vertues of the Volatil Salt of Vipers and of what other parts are able to doe that are separated by Distillation Ch. IX Of the way of using the Volatil Salt of Vipers Ch. X. Divers Remedies or Compositions of which this Volatil Salt is the Base or ground FINIS ERRATA PAge 13. line 6. read seen on p. 29. l. 8. r. and that p. 95. l. 27. r. and the want of goodness p. 120. l. 5. r. the bitten animal would be p. 126. l. 12. r. twice through for twice in the day-light p. 163. l. 12. r. adapt p. 165. l. 1. r. with Salt and Dill. p. 172. l. 1. r. Simples be in THE ANATOMY OF A VIPER General Observations upon this Animal CHAPTER I. I Know not what ground the Antient Writers upon this Animal had to say that in the Copulation the Male did insert his Head into the throat of the Female and there emitted his seed thence falling into her Matrix where she first did form Eggs and then Young Vipers That the Female finding a titillation from the emission of the seed snapp'd off with her teeth the head of the Male and so kill'd him and that the Young Vipers being ready to be brought forth did pierce the Womb and the sides of their Damm to make a passage for themselves so that by killing her they revenged in some manner the death of their Sire I confess that this Story or Tale rather having neither reason nor experience on its side I cannot take the part of those Authors I esteem that a Viper which is a kind of creeping Serpent is indeed procreated by the conjunction of Male and Female but this is done by means of the Organs designed for Generation of which we shall make a description in their proper place and which this Animal hath common with all others and that more in number than most Animals The Viper differs from other Serpents not only in this that it creeps more slowly and jumps not but chiefly herein that its little ones receive their perfection in the womb and come forth alive after the usual manner whereas the Femals of other Serpents lay Eggs which they incubate and hatch either in the Sun or in their recesses The Viper is by many taken for an Image of malice and cruelty but in reality she is guilty of no such thing if she be not hurt or vex'd for if she be she becoms furious aud bites very piercingly but she never assaults Man or beast except she be angred And if at times it happen that she bites some person or other sleeping in the field certainly that Body must have thrust or otherwise hit her for else she would never have bit him It may very well be said that by that means the Stratagem of Annibal succeeded when he caused a quantity of earthen Pitchers fill'd with Vipers to be thrown into the Shipps of the King of Pergamus his Enemy in regard that on the one hand the Pots being broken did hurt and anger the Vipers and stirr'd them up to bite whatsoever was within the reach of their teeth and on the other the sight of these creeping Creatures scattered about here and there in the Ships frighted the Souldiers and disorder'd them so that they could not fight Mean time a Viper attacks and kills those Animals which she means to devour for her nourishment as Spanish Flyes Scorpions Froggs Mice Moles Lizzards and the like which she swallows whole after she hath kill'd them with her bigger Teeth The smaller prey she sends down whole into her stomach the bigger she partly lodgeth in her stomach partly in her weasand There can hardly be made any perfect digestion in the Stomach of Vipers both because the heat is there not well united by reason of the great aperture there is at the mouth where the Oesophagus or Weasand ends and because they have not moisture enough to help the fermentation and the Concoction of food But yet this hinders not * the conveyance of the Juyce and of the finest part of the swallow'd animals into all the parts of their body for nourishment Which is not performed but in the space of many days during which the excrements and superfluities of the nutriment are carried into the Gutts whence the grosser parts of them are cast out again by the mouth This we have lately observ'd in a great part of the body of a Lizzard which a Viper vomited up twelve days after she was taken where we saw that of the head and of the fore-leggs and of that part of the body contiguous to them and which could conveniently be placed in the stomach of the Viper there rested little more than the Bones but that a great part of the trunk together with the hind-leggs and the whole taile were in a manner in a condition as if the Viper had swallow'd them that day as appears in the 2d Figure But we were surprised among other things to see that the parts which could not enter into the stomach and had remained in the Oesophagus had kept so long well I mean without suffring any alteration in the skin although those underneath had contracted some lividness which perhaps was an effect of the venemousness of the biting Vipers can live for many months without any food and after they are once taken they eat no more living then only upon the Air they take in And although they be greedy enough of Lizzards when at liberty yet I have found that having thrown Lizzards alive into a barrel wherein I kept a good number of living Vipers and leaving them there whole days and nights the Vipers did no hurt at all to the Lizzards The Substance of Vipers is viscous and compact and perisheth not but very slowly and difficultly Their Skin is scaly which defends them from the injuries of the Air and maketh that the Spirits unite themselves so firmly to the body that 't is hard for them to quit it and we see
that they remain yet many hours in the Head and in all the parts of the trunk after t is flead emptied of all the gutts and cut in many pieces And this is the cause that the motions and windings so long continue in them that the Head is able to bite and its biting as dangerous as when the Viper was entire and that the Heart even after it is pull'd out of the body and sever'd from the other inward parts keeps its beating for many hours Whence it may be concluded that the Viper which is composed of parts so closely united together and in which are found such perfect Spirits can impart to Man what it hath most accomplisht and in so great abundance So that we need not wonder if we find the remedies we draw from its body are of a not-ordinary vertue A Viper voids not much excrement and what she voyds is not offensive whereas that of Snakes stinks much and hath the smell of stale and corrupt Urine Neither have we ever found any ill smell in opening the vessels wherein we used to keep Vipers alive unless some viper or other had been dead and putrifyed For my part I have never received any inconvenience from any ill air which some pretend to issue forth at the opening of those Vessels Vipers make no holes in the Earth to hide themselves in as other Serpents do but ordinarily they hide themselves under stones or old ruines where they may be often found heaped up and wound together in clusters When 't is fair weather they love to lurk under bushes and tufted plants They commonly couple twice a year the first time in the month of March and they goe with their young ones 4. or 5. months which being perfect come forth one after another by the common opening of the Matrix and in great number even to twenty and twenty five They draw out with them in coming forth a small tegument fastned to their navil like an after-birth which the damm by little and little separateth with her tongue as they are born one after another Vipers cast a skin every Spring and sometimes even in Autumne which hath occasioned a belief that they have a vertue able to make young again and to preserve the strength of those who use them either for a preservative or a remedy THE DESCRIPTION OF A VIPER CHAP. II. Of the Parts which present themselves first SECT I. Of its external Figure THe Vipers Males and Females that we have in France being of their full growth are in the middle of their body a good inch thick but that of Females is bigger when they are with young especially when the young ones are ready to come forth They are commonly two good foot long and there are some that are somewhat longer Their head which is flat hath a kind of border round about the edges of its upper part and in that they differ from Snakes which have all that round bared and taken down and the Head sharper and narrower in proportion to their Body The Head of a Viper is in all an inch long and towards the top thereof it is 7 or 8 lines broad and then lessening by little and little it is not above 4 or 5 lines broad about the Eyes and 2 lines onely about the end of the Nose It is about 2 lines thick The Neck taken where it begins is about the bigness of a mans little finger That of Males is ordinarily a little thicker than that of Females Yet there are some of the Females which when full appear to have a Neck even thicker than that of Males The Tail of Males is always longer and thicker than that of Females because it contains the parts of generation double and in their Interstices there are also two small bladders somewhat long serving for a reservatory of their seed which make their Tail bigger This of the Males is about four fingers square long but that of Females not much longer than three The upper part of the Taile of Males is at its beginning about the bigness of their Neck and ends sharp as doth also the Tail of Females Neither of them stings nor have they any venom in them SECT II. Of the Skin of Vipers NO Vipers are seen but they have their skin spotted but the ground of the colour is different enough for sometimes 't is whitish sometimes reddish in some 't is gray in others yellow in others tawny This ground is always speckled with black spots or at least much darker ones than the rest they appear like different cyphers or characters ranged in spaces even enough and answering one another especially on the top and the sides of the Body Some of them are also upon the Head and among the rest two in the form of Horns which take their rise between both Eyes and open themselves and reach towards the two sides of the top of the Head and are sometimes 4. or 5. lines long each of them and halfe a line broad Opposite to the middle of these two horns there appears a speck of the bigness of a small Lentile being shaped like the Iron of a Pike And this is that which is as 't were the first and principal of all these specks seeming to guide them all along the Back-bone The Skin is all cover'd with Scales the greatest strongest and most considerable of which are those under the whole Body and some under part of the Head Their bigness and force is necessary for them to fortify the Viper in the place that is feeblest and least capable of defence besides that they support the Animal and serve it instead of feet for creeping and for carrying its Body to and fro These great Scales are alwayes of the colour of Steel from one end to the other and different from those of Snakes which are commonly mark'd with a yellow colour They open and stick according as the Viper will recoyle or stop The extremity of these great Scales is as 't were sow'd beneath the other little Scales which cover the whole Body Those under the Head reach in their breadth towards the two Jawes they are lesser streighter and softer than those under the Belly and terminate at other smaller Scales which go on to cover the whole undermost part of the Head and beginning their ranks towards the ends before continue them at the sides of those ranks as far as towards the bottom of the Jaws From the beginning of the Neck unto the beginning of the Tayl there are as many great Scales as there are vertebraes or Joynts of the Back-bone and as each Vertebra hath on each side a Ribb each Scale meets by its two ends the points of both and serves them for a defence and stay the same abuts also on each side at the end of one rank of litle scales wherewith the rest of the Body is covered and it seems that 't is placed there to receive them These small scales are admirably well ranged they lying