towards the cavity of the teeth as into a funnel and that from htence they are convey'd into the blood of the animal by the opening which they have made there to produce all those effects of which we end eavour to give a reason Others more able than we may perhaps carry their reasoning farther For the rest some have thought that those enraged Spirits have in them a secret acidity capable to coagulate the bloud and to hinder the Circulation whence the mortall accidents proceed But since that this acidity may have been produced in the mass of the Blood by its own parts which come to be dissolved and severed when they are tainted by the venom and since corruption slides into it as into milk which sowreth and corrupteth of it self without mixing any acid thing therewith it is not necessary to search for a coagulating Acid in the Spirits of the Viper which cannot be perceived by the taste to know the truth of its existence therein and that the less because that Acid may be naturally formed in the Bloud of the animal bitten without looking for it in the Viper as if it had come from thence How-ever this be we must agree herein that this irritation in the phansy or in the spirits of the Viper is the main cause of the activity and piercingness of its venom and that without it the biting would not produce such surprising effects as those are of which we have related so many Examples Nor is a viper the onely animal whose biting is mortal Dogs Wolves and Men themselves prove that and not to go from our Subject the biting of Serpents of which the Viper is a species is more or less malign according to the nature of their spirits and especially according as they are angred and exasperated It seems that Cleopatra was well instructed in this matter when she intending to kill herself commanded to be brought her two Aspes in a fruit-basket and pricked them with a golden needle which she pulled out of her hair-dress and made her self be bitten immediately by one of those Aspes in the right arm and by the other in her left breast knowing as a famous Author saith that their natural fierceness and cruelty was not sufficient to execute well what she desired and that it was needful this pricking should serve to provoke the spirits to bite to purpose and to render the wound mortal if at least it be with their biting as it is with that of our Vipers who also have this particular quality that not onely they are soon angred but that in the very moment of the irritation they bite with a strange swiftness which speaketh much the subtlety and impetuousness of their spirits whence depends their strength and activity We observe also that in distilling Vipers bodies we thence draw very subtile and very penetrating parts and in much greater quantity in proportion than from any other animal In the mean time the obstacle which these irritated spirits of the Viper give to the communication of the spirits of the animal bitten nor the coagulation or confusion which they cause to the bloud are not of that force that specifique remedies should not master them and restore the animal unto that Condition wherein it was before it was wounded Which is that we shall prove in the sequele by divers Experiments where we hope to shew in what manner the remedies do overcome the powerful action of those enraged Spirits CHAP. V. EXPERIMENTS Of the yellow juyce contain'd in the Vesicles of the great teeth made upon divers Animals IN the design we had well to try all things we pursued our Experiments and to be well assured of the quality of that yellow liquor which hath been believed so dangerous we caused to be bitten by six angred Vipers separately and several times by each of them a slice of bread and so much that it had well exhausted and retain'd all the yellow liquor contained in the Gums of these six Vipers At the same time we gave this slice of bread to a fasting Dog to eat who was no more inconvenienced thereby than if he had eaten a piece of dry bread that had imbibed nothing of this juyce We have also often made divers Pullets and Pigeons to swallow pieces of bread dipped in the same liquor and we can assure that none of these animals had any mischief thereupon I my self had the curiosity to taste of this juyce which I have divers times done in the presence of many persons without washing my mouth before or after And several Physitians also have tasted of it themselves both to know the tast and to be assur'd of the harmlessness thereof and 't is certain that they were no more incommoded thereby than myself And because it hath been believed that this juyce being thus tasted and swallowed by Men or other Animals that had no wound nor Ulcer in their mouths nor in their stomachs was indeed harmless but that it was quite another thing when it did accompany a Biting and entred into the openings made by the teeth and that the same being put upon an Ulcer a wound or a simple excoriation made on the skin was mortal and failed not to produce its effect three or four hours after it had been put upon the wound and that as well upon Men as all other sorts of Animals without exception we resolved also to make many Experiments upon this account I can therefore say in the first place that I have tasted of it my self at such times when my mouth was excoriated upon which I observed that even my spittle was a little ting'd with bloud without having perceived any acrimony or extraordinary heat We also made a Tryal upon a Pigeon which we wounded under the wing and in the leg in the same moment of time and we let into each wound some of this yellow liquor which we just afore had drawn from the gums of two enraged Vipers then we re-joyned the skin well to inclose the said liquor and we bound both wounds over with a band that nothing might run out We can assure that the Pigeon felt not any inconveniency from it and that we even found upon the wound made on the leg a coagulated drop of the juyce round and of the same colour as we had put it there and the bloud of the place dryed and that soon after both wounds were dryed up and heal'd of themselves We also made the like Experiment upon a Cat which we purposely wounded in the leg but he received no harm at all by it We have also often experimented it upon Pullets and other Pigeons but alwayes with the like success and without any offence to the Animals The same tryal hath been thrice made at three several times and even twice in one day upon a dog whom we had wounded on purpose towards the bottom of the Ear where he could not lick his wound and no mischief at all followed upon it We cannot but
and imagined that the taste of the Gall very sharp and very bitter was an argument of its malignity and that the veins and arteries which pass near the Gall and may be followed as far as into the jawes and appear the same through the whole body above and below the Gall were the pipes which Nature had purposely form'd to carry the juyce of the Gall into the Gums and that it was that liquor which caused all the mortal Symptoms and death it self But they have not considered that this Choler of the Viper resideth not in the Gall that the Galls of innumerable other Animals have a taste very approaching to that of a Viper and yet are not venomous that the veins and arteries which pass near the Gall and seem to part thence and extend unto the Gumms and all the parts of the Body are vessels designed onely to convey the blood which have not their origin in the Gall and which cannot carry a juyce which they could not receive that there is not any taste of Gall in all those imagined Vessels no more than there is in the liquor of the Gums nor in all the rest of the Body above the Gall and that in the whole Bladder of Gall there is but one vessel that is any thing considerable though it be very slender which issuing as we have said from the internal side of the upper part of the Gall descends so far is it from ascending and discharges it self into the first intestine according to the description we have made of it and conformably to the Figure that may be seen in the Cut. But not to stay upon principles so slightly establish't and ill maintain'd forasmuch as we have on our side a great number of Experiments upon which we are grounded We say That the Gall of a Viper is not at all Venomous but that on the contrary it contains a Vertue that is Balsamick and cleansing and very proper for many good uses that there is no Vessel which carries its juyce to the Vesicles that are about the great teeth that the yellow liquor therein contain'd is in all things very different from that of the Gall excepting that they are both equally free from Venom that that yellow liquor is gather'd and form'd by the Salival Glands above described that it is carried into those Vesicles or Baggs by the Lymphatick vessels which part from those Glands that this juyce is nothing but a pure and plain Saliva of which we have already observd the use and that this juyce contributes nothing to the venomousness of the Biting since being tasted and swallowed as we have often experimented it does no hurt neither to man nor beast and since also being put upon open wounds and upon incisions made in the flesh the same being rubb'd therewith and mingled with the bloud it annoyes nothing at all notwithstanding the judgment of a person very intelligent and particularly in this subject of Vipers wo 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 ourselves 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 We say further that there is no other venom in all the other parts of the Body and more that there is none even in the great teeth if the Viper be not alive and the biting not accompanied with vexed and enraged Spirits The hurt which the teeth doth when the Viper biteth consists chiefly in that it opens a door to the angred Spirits without which irritation the Biting of the teeth is not mortal and ought to be no further consider'd then for the deep and direct wound which a tooth so sharp so long and so slender of any other animal whatsoever might make In which circumstances the great number of Experiments by us made hath rendred us knowing in regard that we have observed a quite manifest difference in the Biting of a Viper angred from that of a Viper which was made to bite by holding its jaws and by pressing its great teeth into the body of some animal because this forc'd action serves rather to make the Viper retain its spirits then to let them out for which the freedom of the animal is necessary the spirits not being able to part but the imagination and the Choler of the Viper must immediately precede and thrust them out For this way of biting by holding the jaws and thrusting the teeth into some animal although it emit more of the yellow liquor upon the part bitten than the biting made by an angred Viper left to it self is not followed by any sinister accident and is healed like a simple wound whereas the other is attended with death in case we want means of preventing it The effect therefore of the venom being altogether of a spirituous nature and not working but according as the spirits are more or less iritated and push't on and according as they finde more or less free passage we have reason to impute it to the exasperated Spirits having found no footstep of it neither real nor apparent in all the visible parts But the better to maintain this our assertion we shall here give you our thoughts concerning the action of the enraged Spirits These Spirits then push't on by the choler which the Viper had conceived finding the apertures made by the Teeth follow their inclination and as it is their property to advance and penetrate they at the first seek out all wayes for it and they advance more or less according to the facility or difficulty they meet with Thence it is that the Biting is much more dangerous when the teeth light upon the greater vessels than when they only light upon Flesh or the little branches of the veins and Arteries So that the vexed Spirits of a Viper meeting with the bloud and Spirits contain'd in the vessels of the bitten animal push and press them to make way for themselves and embarassing the particles that compose the bloud cause there a coagulation or confusion which disturbs the ordinary Circulation and by this means hinders the communication of the Spirits to the principal parts from which depends their subsistence and life And by reason of this privation they must succumbe either for having been attack't in their fort by these vexed Spirits and infected by them or rather because these spirits of the Viper have made themselves masters of the avenues and obstructed the passages by which the blood and the spirits were communicated to them We conclude therefore that the imagination of the Viper being irritated by the idea of revenge which she had fram'd to her self gives a certain motion to the Spirits which cannot be expressed and pushes them violently through the nerves and their fibres
herself under those leaves Whilest I had live Vipers in my house several Women with child came to me some designedly to see them others without having any such thought and even being surpris'd at and abhorring the sight of them but none of them having been inconvenienced by it so far were they from miscarrying thereupon as certain Authors would beare us in hand they would do Not that such a thing may not chance to happen to some woman or other extraordinary fearful and of a temper so delicate that a much less occasion might produce such an effect but that ought not to pass for a general rule We have often pressed some Vipers both Males and Females at the place where be the Parastates or the Bladders containing the seed namely under the tail and near the openings which serve for generation and have so much and so long press'd them that a white liquor came forth but we never perceived there any piercing or ill-sented smell no more than we did in opening those Parastates with a lance though we held our nose close to it which is also directly contrary to what some Authors have assured thereof CHAPT VIII GENERAL REFLEXIONS Vpon all we have experimented THE great care and attention used by us in the Experiments we have hitherto described and in those we have thought fit to suppress hath made us to profit of all the occasions that presented themselves and we have taken pleasure to observe all the effects that have appeared to us and carefully examined them and inquired into their causes afterwards that we might make our reflexions thereon The Biting of the Viper which hapned to the Gentleman Stranger began to furnish us with much matter and at that time we knew the Venom by its effects which seem'd to proceed from a very slight cause it being nothing but a little pricking and onely the cut of a tooth which was not any thing deep and the ill of which did not seem to us increased by any of the yellow liquor of the Gums the innocence of which was not yet fully known to us In the mean time the mortal Accidents came on in great number whilst continued vomitings hinder'd the effect of the remedies which could not be kept in the Stomach to communicate from thence some of their vertue to the parts affected It was well enough known that there was something very subtile very quick and very powerful in this Venom and it was also presumed that that resided in the Spirits but the nature of it or by what means or how or on what parts it acted was not known so well Yet we must avow that on an occasion so pressing so dangerous and so extraordinary we could not take our measures better than by having recourse to the Volatile Salt of Vipers The cause being subtile and spirituous there was required a remedy of the like nature that might be able to make haste to finde it out to joyn with it and to draw it to the extremities of the body and to make it come forth by the wayes it had opened for it But then the continual vomiting demanded the aid of such a remedy that could work in a moment or execute at least by several takings what it was not able to do at the first The happy success which attended the use of this Volatile salt of Vipers acquainted us with the sufficiency thereof and showed us the mastery it had over the malignity of those Spirits It also begot in us a desire to know aright in what manner it produced such good effects and to be enabled so to discourse of it as that others might have no reason to reject our sentiments We esteem therefore that this Salt by its subtile volatile and piercing quality is very proper to dissolve the coagulations of the Bloud and to sever the parts which therein were congeal'd or fix'd if we may so speak and caus'd the disorder and confusion of its motion that it performed this in the Blood of the said Gentleman which it restor'd to its former condition and so gave again to the parts the free communication of the Spirits which they had lost We believe also that this Volatile Salt by the facility it had to hook and fasten it self unto those vexed Spirits as being of the like nature did easily joyn with them and drove them to the extremities of the body drawing them forth through the pores of the skin and issuing out with them by the way it had open'd for them The Ligatures made about the place bitten the Scarifications and the approach of the well heated iron-spatuls to the wound were to serve to stay the impetuousness of those irritated Spirits and to give them an out-let at these openings rather than that they should go farther And the exhibition of the Theriaque the Viper-powder and the like was to conduce to drive them back as it might have done if these remedies had stay'd in the Stomach As also the Epithemes of Theriaque upon the Heart and Stomach might have serv'd much if the action of the enrag'd spirits had been more slow and if at the time of their application those spirits had not been too farre advanced But the Use of this Volatile Salt was to carry the Bell as it did from all the other remedies and those that were employ'd afterwards and in the intervals of its exhibition were nothing if we may so speak but Souldiers assisting their Captain such as the Confection of Alkermes and of Hyacinthe which were very proper to fortify the noble parts as also were the Syrup of Limons and the Decoction of Scorzonera and the shavings of Ivory The Slices of Citron which might seem to some by their acidity capable to augment the coagulation of the blood were not given till after the Volatile Salt had used its force to dissipate it and they served to recover the Stomach debilitated by continual vomiting and by their acidness to restore the lost appetite and to help the concoction of the aliments and their distribution into the parts that had need of them Besides that Citrons have a specifique vertue against the poyson of Vipers if we will believe those Authors that have written of it and is a great friend to the Heart and the other noble parts The Anointing with the Oyle of Scorpions of Matthiolus and with the water of the Queen of Hungary made upon the swell'd parts and the application of Alexiterial fomentations should in all appearance have serv'd much but the sequele shew'd that there was nothing but that Volatile Salt which could make those angry Spirits surrender and so was to take the honour of all The Experiments which we afterwards made upon a great number of differing Animals have given us a much greater knowledg of the effects of Vipers-poyson of the parts on which it works and of those that seem to be exempt from it though at last they do succumbe We have set down the most considerable of
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
them and found in both of them a little bloud coagulated in the heart and the vena cava and all the rest of the bloud blackish disposed to curdle and as 't were turn'd and corrupt but the Heart and Liver and all the inward and outward parts of a very good colour and in a very good condition save that a little lividness appear'd upon the place bitten We have frequently observ'd the same thing in many Pullets and Pigeons But it will not be amiss here to relate the different success in two Pigeons we caused to be bitten equally and in the same place by an angred Viper One of them we made to swallow the weight of about half a crown of Theriack a moment before it was bitten giving nothing to the other The former being bitten went to and fro in the room so as not to shew any sign of illness but the latter was dead in less than a quarter of an hour We afterwards caused the former to be bitten again in the leg and then it grew sick by little and little and dyed half an hour after We found the place of the first pricking much more livid then that of the Pigeon which dyed in a quarter of an hour and even more then the place of the leg which was bitten afterward We judged that the vexed spirits unable to penetrate into the body defended by the Theriaque had wrought upon the outward part and round about the place bitten where they had coagulated the bloud and caused the lividness whereas the like spirits having met with no resistance in the other Pigeon had gained and wrought upon the inner parts having left and as 't were despised the place at which they were entred We also wondred not that the Theriaque which had vigorously repulsed the Spirits introduc'd by the first bite could not resist the latter but for half an hour and that at last it was forced to yield in regard that the number of the enemies was great and being weakn'd by the conflict it had but now endured had not force enough to bear up against the new assault of the latter We did also prick several times and pretty deep dogs pigeons and pullets with the long teeth of Vipers some pull'd out of the throat of dead ones others out of such as were alive There was also one of the company who handling a dead vipers head had a mind to prick his finger and actually did so with one of the great teeth so that the bloud issued I also my self thrust into my hand one of them and so deep that a piece of it remain'd more than half an hour in my flesh but in all this we found not the least appearance of venom nor any ill but such as might be caused by the pricking of a Pin or some such thing We also deplum'd a Pigeon at the most fleshy place and holding with both our hands the jawes of a Viper open and making her raise her great teeth we pressed both the jawes at once against that fleshy part and caused the teeth deeply to enter into it and order'd the matter so that the yellow liquor of the Gums had time enough to pass into the wounds which the teeth had made We at the same time saw that the bloud issued out of the wounds and mingled it self with the yellow juyce which remained there We had then ready a little stone come from Portugal which those of that Country call the Snake-Stone being pretty black shining roundish and flat about the bigness of a French piece of five Sols but three times thicker which we presently applyed to the place bitten which was cover'd with bloud and with the yellow liquor mingled therewith The stone immediately was fastned to the wound and we perceived nothing extraordinary in the Pigeon We might have believed that this safety of the Pigeon was due to the vertue of this Stone which they would assure us was infallible against the bitings of Vipers and all kinds of Serpents if we had not some dayes before tryed the like Stone upon a Pigeon bitten in the same place by an angry Viper and if that wound had not been follow'd by the death of that Pigeon a quarter of an hour after We thought this very well deserved another experiment and having still the same Stone by us which seem'd to have saved the former pigeon and such another which the Lord Ambassadour of Spain had trusted his Physitian with we by one and the same enraged Viper caused to be bitten two Pigeons of equal bigness and fleshiness each in the same place well freed from its feathers The bloud was seen upon both wounds but there appear'd but little of the yellow liquor We soon applyed both the Stones one to each Pigeon they presently stuck fast to the places pricked but we saw immediately in both a very high and thick beating of the heart which was follow'd by the death of both Pigeons which hapned at one and the same time in less than a quarter of an hour We had also a mind to know whether the Venom that had so much force upon the bloud were also able to make some ill impression upon the noble or solid parts of the bitten animals which parts appear'd to us very fair and very well conditioned We gave also a Pigeon dead of a Vipers biting to be eaten by a Cat that was very lean which fed very greedily upon it and the same did afterwards eat many more and Pullets also upon which she grew very fat so far was she from finding any inconvenience thereby Moreover we had a desire to learn whether one and the same Viper was able to kill by its biting divers animals wounded one presently after another and whether the Venom was exhaustible so that the animals bitten last might be free from its mischievousness To know the truth hereof we caused to be bitten five Pigeons one after another by the same Viper which we angred every time she was to bite All these Pigeons soon dyed and we particularly observed that the last bitten dyed first of all And as to the Bloud and all the inward and outward parts they were in a manner alike with those of the Pigeon that was bitten first The various Experiments we have been relating do insensibly oblige us to deliver our thoughts concerning the Venom of Vipers and its operation We think this to be a proper place to declare ourselves here and afterwards to employ the rest of our main experiments for the defence of what we shall have advanced upon this Subject CHAP. IV. Of the Venom of a Vipers Biting and its Operation THE Antiens prevented by the opinion that there were very few parts in a Viper that were exempt of poyson have but very slightly examin'd them And as they esteemed that the Choller of the Viper did much contribute to the Venom believing that the seat thereof was in the Gall they there also setled that of the poyson
them making some reflexions on the biting of several Doggs done by Vipers but there remain'd still for us to discourse Why and How the parts of Vipers being eaten can stop and overcome the Venom of their biting We say therefore that all the parts of a Viper abound chiefly in Volatile Salt which in distillation is found partly alone partly in the form of a Spirit which properly is nothing but a Salt dissolved in some portion of Phlegme and partly in the form of an Oyle which also is but a Salt mix't among the unctuous part of a Viper We say also that in the digestion made in the Stomach of the parts of a Vipers body that have been swallowed down this same Volatile Salt which they contain is separated and afterwards distributed to all the parts that need them especially if of these parts there have been swallow'd enow to furnish that quantity which is necessary of this Salt and so we need not doubt but that this Salt will produce an effect like that of the Volatile Salt which was given to our Gentleman bitten Unless it should be said that this same Volatile Salt of those parts of a Vipers body which have been swallowed being of the same nature with the irritated Spirits attracts them to it self and by this union changes their maligne quality and so tames them that they have no power over the bitten Animal which in my opinion is hard enough to conceive and perhaps established upon unsolid foundations We hope that among the many Experiments those of the Five Pigeons bitten one after another by one and the same Viper exasperated and of which the last bitten dyed first of all when the Viper was most vexed and most exhausted of its yellow liquor and that of the Pigeon bitten by Viper which we had caused to bite several times into bread before and that even till bloud came forth to the end that the Juyce might be well emptied of it and which notwithstanding was followed by the death of the Pigeon These Experiments I say will prove on one hand that the yellow liquor contributes nothing to the poyson and on the other that these incensed Spirits assisted by the openings which the great Teeth had prepared for them are the sole and true cause thereof The wound made by a Viper not vexed whose jaws were held in and whose teeth were at the same time thrust into the body of a Pigeon which also was accompanied with store of the yellow juyce and yet not attended with any ill accident as also the pricking made by the great teeth pulled out of a live Viper or by such as stuck yet in the head of a dead Viper and did no hurt at all do sufficiently confirm this truth viz. that the cause of the Venom is to be imputed to the Spirits enraged and not to any other thing or parts in the Vipers body I have not undertaken to reason upon all the Experiments we have made as I have done upon the Bitings both because that is beyond the Sphere of a man of my profession and because I designed onely to confine my self particularly to the wounds and to the Remedies able to heal them For the rest if in the Treaty concerning Theriaque which I have lately publisht I have advanced any thing not consonant to what I have declared here touching the action of the Venom I am to be excused therein forasmuch as I had not then had the occasion well to know the nature and the effects of the Bitings of Vipers and referred my self to the most approved Authors about it But yet all we have there said derogates in nothing from the preparation of Vipers for Theriaque which we have there laid down and which was in that Book our main design as well as to reform several other preparations that seemed not reasonable to us That which now remains to be done by us is to speak of the Remedies to be drawn from Vipers which may serve to heal their bitings and to cure many other evils THE REMEDIES EXTRACTED FROM VIPERS CHAPT I. Of the different choyce that may be made of the parts of a Viper THere is nothing in Nature to which can be given more justly the title both of Aliment and Medicine than to a Viper since it affords equally very good Nourishment and very good Remedies It also hath in its Body not one part which is not very usefull and of which Artists may not draw something that is good their chief difference consisting in this that the substance of the one is more or less close then that of others Yet as in all Bodies of Animals there are parts preferable to others so we may make a distinction of those in a Viper especially if we mean to eat them or to reduce them to powder to take it at the mouth alone or mingled with other medicaments In this case it will be well to use only the Heart the Liver and the Trunk I mean the Body emptied of its guts without head and tayle Not that if you would make use of the head and taile any ill would attend it or that you need to fear any ill quality in them no more than in all the other parts of the body but the Heart Liver and Trunk are chosen as those that are most esteem'd and which are taken before the rest out of the body of such Animals which men use to feed upon Those also that would nourish themselves with Viper-flesh boyled and seasoned may do well in eating of it to separate the bones thereof and to leave them uneaten but if they bruise them between their teeth and swallow them down together with the flesh they would afford them a like and even a stronger nourishment than the flesh for we have found by Distillation that the Bones yield the same parts that the Flesh does and even in greater quantity For the same reason the Bones of the trunk are not to be cast away when you will prepare the powder of Vipers and that the rather because they are in that way very easy to swallow One may also very usefully dress the flesh of Vipers with their own fat as one would do with butter or with the fat of other animals The Skin it self if men would might be boyled and eaten with benefit but that it would not be so savory as the principal parts we have been speaking of As for the Chymical preparations all the parts of Vipers may be therein employed and I would not except from them the Stomach it self nor the Intestins if they were well clear'd of Worms and all Excrements I also know no difference as to goodness of one Sex from the other although most Authors have prescribed the use of Females On the contrary if there be any such difference I would preferre the Males to the Females when these are full of Eggs and big forasmuch as then they are too much wasted for the feeding and increasing of their Eggs. As
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
nor smel although the same persons that have err'd in many things in the rectification of the Volatil Salt have fear'd they should loose therein a Volatil Spirit which was only in their imagination And the luting which we have advised was only to prevent peoples belief that a part of the Volatil Salt might have escaped that way But although this Volatil Salt appear fix't and remain as such at the bottom of the Cucurbit after distillation yet there is a part which retakes its former nature and becoms Volatil again if it be mix'd with Salt of Tartar or with some other Lixiviate Salt putting them together in a subliming vessel For these Lixiviate Salts being of a nature contrary to acid Salts and Spirits do mortify them and retain them to themselves and let go the Volatil Salts which the acid spirits had as 't were mortified and fix'd and all that was Volatil in this seemingly fix't Salt riseth in a white form and hath almost the same taste and the same other qualities of the Volatil Salts well rectified Yet you will also find there a great diminution of its weight so that it will be more advantagious to keep it in the condition it was in before this last sublimation the greatest advantage of which is to come to know that the fixation that hath been made by the Spirit of Salt although it have as 't were changed the nature of the Volatil Salt and hid its diaphoretique quality under that of the diuretique yet hath not quite destroyed it since there is some part that can retake its pristine form and vertue This Salt thus fix'd possesseth the vertues of a Spirit of Salt concentred but they are found augmented by those it hath borrowed from the Volatil Salt Those who would only carry away by urine or siege the superfluous humours of the body may usefully prepare and employ it but those that shall use the Volatile Salt well rectified without changing its nature nor diverting its action by any fixation will finde therein such effects as will be incomparably more apparent and more sensible and will not waste of it so much CHAPT VIII Of the Vertues of the Volatile Salt of Vipers and of what the other parts separated by Distilla on may perform THE Volatile Salt of Vipers is to be consider'd as a Sun as well among the parts that rise by distillation as among those that rest in the Retort there being none among those that are come over but have borrowed from it almost all the vertue it can have nor any of those that have stay'd but have need of it or are useless without it The Flegm that riseth first carries alwayes some part with it without which it would produce no effect That which is called Spirit is nothing else to speak aright but a Volatile Salt which in the distillation hath been followed by a little Flegme dissolving it and giving it the form of a Spirit which may be shewed by the Rectification wherein that saline volatil part is separated raised and coagulated into a white and chrystalline forme and leaveth at the botom of the cucurbite the moisture that had changed its nature and is nothing else but flegm We say on this occasion the same thing of what many Authors improperly call the Volatil Spirit of an humane skull of Harts-horn and of other parts of Animals they being nothing else but Volatil Salts mixt with flegme which they afterwards quit when they are rectified The Oyle also would have but very little vertue if it borrowed no Volatil salt and if it retained not in it a good part thereof as may be observed in the Rectification for if the Oyle were measur'd or weighed before 't is put among the rest into the cucurbite for rectification and if it were weighed again after that all the Volatil Salt is risen it would be found much diminished in quantity and in strength also because most of the Volatil Salt which had joyned it self to it hath been carried away by the rectification So those that separate the Oyle from the other parts to rectify them and who use it not but for wounds or ulcers and to take away superfluities do doubtless not know it aright for it is also endow'd with other vertues more considerable of which we shall speake in this Chapter The Fixt Salt which rests in the Retort mix't among the terrestrial part although it is to be put in the rank of Lixiviat Salts and possesseth few other qualities but those of Salt of Tartar yet retains something of the nature of the Volatile salt And those that have considered this Salt as a Caustick have had good success with it without knowing its nature seing they imputed it to the maligne parts which they believed to be in Vipers whereas they should have ascribed it to the nature of Lixiviate salts But this Salt being taken at the mouth will be much more effectual if you mingle some Volatil Salt with it this Caustique faculty not hindring but that it may be taken safely and beneficially in appropriated liquors as many other lixiviate Salts are The Terrestrial part hath nothing in it that deserves to be considered and it may justly be called Terra mortua Dead earth after it is freed from its fixed Salt So that all the parts that rise by distillation as well as those that cannot rise are of small force or altogether useless without the Volatil Salt It is therefore upon good reason that we attribute to it the principal vertues which a Viper can furnish The similitude of substance which the Volatile Salt of Viper hath with the spirituous parts of our Body conjoyn'd to its subtile and piercing quality maketh that accommodating itself to their condition and finding all liberty in its actions it produceth all the effects it is capable of and penetrateth without any opposition into the most secret and the most remote parts of the Body It hath this peculiar that thought it act as a Soverain and finde nothing of resistance to its dominion yet it exerciseth it not as a Conquerour nor as a Destroyer but rather as a Restorer of the places and parts where it passeth and although all its courses be extraordinary 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 precipitate yet they are so well 〈◊〉 and so well directed that no part 〈…〉 ody misseth them and that none of 〈…〉 is unuseful but rather very beneficial to all the places where it passeth Now since the flesh the heart the liver and the other parts of the Viper taken as an Aliment or as a Medicine may serve for the cure of many maladies and produce very considerable effects 't is not at all tobe doubted but that this Salt which is the most subtile and the most potent of them all is something more sublime and more efficacious And we are assur'd that if it were well known to us it would pass for an almost Universal medicine men would be careful of preparing it and we should see it