SECT. XV.—ON THE HÆMORRHUS, PRESTER, OR DIPSAS.
Those bitten by the hæmorrhus experience violent pains, and both longitudinal and lateral contractions of the porous parts of the body, occasioned by the persistence of the pains. From the bite there is a copious discharge of blood, and if there happen to be a sore on any part of the body it bursts out and discharges blood. The alvine evacuations likewise are bloody, and the blood which is evacuated is thrombous. When they cough they bring up blood from the lungs, and they die at last vomiting blood irremediably. Those bitten by the dipsas experience intolerable heat and intense thirst which is insatiable and unceasing, so that they swallow copious draughts, and yet they feel as if they had never drunk; and the whole system is affected, as in dropsy, owing to constant ingestion of drink. Hence the animal has been called prester, causon, and dipsas. By most of the ancients those bitten by the hæmorrhus and dipsas were given over as incurable. But if we have no particular remedies for this reptile we ought to make trial of the general applications, and immediately have recourse to scarifications and burning, and, if the part permit, to amputation of the extremities. Then acrid cataplasms may be applied. All kinds of acrid food are also useful, especially that from pickles, drinking undiluted wine, and using baths. These things are to be applied perseveringly, and repeated at short intervals, before the complaints make their attacks; for after they make their appearance no advantage can be derived from medical aid. We find these topical remedies described for their bites, namely, for those of the dipsas, the powdered leaves of purslain with vinegar, polenta, and bramble leaves powdered with honey, plantain, hyssop, white garlic, leeks, rue, and nettle; and for those of the hæmorrhus the same things, and, in addition, boiled vine leaves triturated with honey. By the mouth the burnt head of the animal itself may be taken in a draught, or garlic with oil of iris. They may likewise eat dried grapes.
Commentary. According to Nicander, the hæmorrhus is about a foot in length, of a black or fiery colour, with two horns on its head, and eyes like those of locusts. The symptoms brought on by its bite, as described by Nicander, appear to have been very similar to those of the disease called purpura hæmorrhagica, namely, a discharge of blood from the gums, nose, ears, bladder, bowels, or any open sore. Ælian gives exactly the same account of it. (H. A. xv, 13.)
It appears from Dioscorides that the dipsas was also sometimes called prester and causon. (vi.) See also Ælian (H. A. vi, 51.) Lucian and Isidorus, however, make a distinction between the dipsas and prester. Lucian says that it resembles the viper de dipsadibus. In fact the dipsas seems to have belonged to the viper kind. (See Bochart, Hieroz. ii, 367.) Galen states that he was informed by the Marsi, who made a living in Rome by dealing in serpents, that the dipsades were not a peculiar species of serpents, but a variety of the viper found on the sea-shores of Africa. (De Simpl. x.) Isidorus thus defines them: “Hæmorrhois aspis nuncupatur, eo quod sanguinem sudet qui ab eo morsus fuerit: ita ut dissolutis venis, quicquid vitæ est per sanguinem evocat.” “Dipsas genus est aspidis quæ Latine situla quia quem memorderit siti perit.” (Orig. xii, 4.) The effects produced upon the system by the sting of the dipsas seem to have been of a highly inflammatory nature. According to Nicander, it kindles a flame in the heart, the lips become parched, and the person is seized with an unquenchable thirst. These symptoms are strongly portrayed by Lucan:
“Ecce subit virus tacitum, carpitque medullas
Ignis edax, calidâque accendit viscera tabe.
Ebibit humorem circum vitalia fusum
Pestis, et in sicco linguam torrere palato
Cæpit....
Ille vel in Tanaim missus, Rhodanumque, Padumque,
Arderet, Nilumque bibens per rura vagantem.
Accessit morti Libye, factique[1] minorem
Famam Dipsas habet terris adjuta perastis.”
Pharsal. ix, 754.
[1] Sic lege non factiq.
The Arabians give a similar description of its effects. Haly Abbas says, that it occasions great heat and burning. Dioscorides treats the wounds of the dipsas and hæmorrhus upon general principles, namely, by the external application of cauteries and cataplasms; and the internal administration of wine and acrid food. Actuarius, in like manner, recommends undiluted wine and acrid food, and also directs us to amputate the part, or apply acrid cataplasms according to the degree of danger. Most of the ancient authorities concur in recommending the theriac; for an account of the modus operandi of which in this case, see Alexander Aphrodisiensis (Prob. i, 152.)
We may mention that, after considering the descriptions given by Nicander, his commentator Eutecnius, Galen, Actuarius, and Avicenna, we are disposed to think that the text of our author at the beginning of this section must be corrupt; but we have not ventured to deviate from it, as we could not hit upon a conjectural emendation to satisfy us. None of the others mention contractions of the interstices or porous parts of the body, and all state that there is a discharge of blood from the pores of the skin. Now it is not probable that our author should have omitted a symptom so striking as this cutaneous hemorrhage, and substituted one which the others take no notice of.
Sprengel makes the dipsas to be the coluber prester, and the hæmorrhus the C. cerastes. That they were both vipers is quite obvious from the ancient descriptions of them, and more especially from the account of them given by Galen. (l. c.)