Nicander says of the cerastes that it resembles the male viper, only that the latter has no horns, whereas the former has either two or four. Isidorus says of them, “Aspis vocata quod morsu venena immittat et aspergat: ἱὸς enim Græci venenum dicunt, et inde aspis quod morsu venenato interimat” (Orig. xii, iv); and of the cerastes, “Cerastes serpens dictus eo quod in capite cornua habeat similia arietum: sunt autem quadrigemina cornicula, quorum ostentatione, veluti escâ illiciens sollicitata animalia perimit.” (Ibid.) Harris says, “The shephephon (Gen. xlix. 17) is probably the cerastes, a serpent of the viper kind.” (Nat. Hist. of the Bible.) Bochart, however, has proved that the shephephon signifies both the cerastes and the hæmorrhus, which are very much alike, being both vipers. (Hier. ii, 416.) Sprengel, in fact, makes the hæmorrhus to be the same as the cerastes.
Our author’s treatment is principally taken from Dioscorides. Aëtius, however, gives the fullest account of them. He says the sting of the most fatal species of asp proves fatal in three hours; and that those wounded by the cerastes generally live nine days. He represents the asp as occasioning great coldness, torpor, and at last convulsions. Besides the local remedies applicable in all such cases, he recommends in an especial manner vinegar, which is to be administered in great quantities. Celsus thus explains the way in which vinegar proves efficacious for counteracting the effect of a frigorific poison: “Credo quoniam id (acetum) quamvis refrigerandi vim habet, tamen habet etiam dissipandi. Quo fit ut terra respersa eo spumat. Eadem ergo vi verisimile est spissescentem quoque intus humorem hominis ab eo discuti, et sic dari sanitatem.”
The author of the work ‘Euporistôn,’ usually published with those of Dioscorides, recommends, in the case of a person stung by the asp, constant shaking, beating, and movement of the whole body, with the affusion of hot salt water. (Euporist. ii, 120.)
Pliny says the poison of an asp proves immediately fatal when introduced into a fresh wound, more slowly when the sore is old, and that it is perfectly innoxious when swallowed by the mouth. (N. H. xxix, 18.)
The account which Avicenna gives of these serpents is mostly taken from Aëtius and our author.
Agricola describes the asp to be four feet long, and of the thickness of a spear. The cerastes, he says, in other respects resembles a viper, except that it has two or four substances on its head like horns.
Madden, a late traveller in the East, gives a different account of the horned serpent (coluber cerastes); he says that of two which he purchased from the Psylli one was a foot long, and the other a foot and a half. A lancet smeared with the venom of one of them killed a dog in three hours. The French naturalists who attended the expedition to Egypt found a viper, called hage by the inhabitants, which they held to be identical with the asp of the ancients. We need have no hesitation then in deciding that the coluber Ægyptiacus is the celebrated asp of antiquity. That the cerastes was a variety of the asp seems highly probable from the description which Nicander gives of both. (Theriac 177 and 259.) See also Wilkinson’s ‘Thebes,’ p. 378. In fine, the asp and cerastes were merely varieties of the common viper of Egypt.
SECT. XIX.—ON THE BASILISK.
This reptile seldom comes under the sight of men; but Erasistratus says, when the basilisk bites one the wound becomes of a faint golden colour, and he also says that three drachms of castor taken in a draught proves a remedy in such cases, and in like manner the juice of poppy; but we have had no trial of these things.
Commentary. The basilisk, according to Nicander, has a sharp body about three palms in length, of a bright yellow colour, and is called the king of reptiles, because all the others flee from his hiss. Pliny, Solinus, and most of the ancient authorities seem to copy Nicander’s description of the basilisk. The symptoms produced by his sting are said to be inflammation of the whole body, lividity and putrefaction of the flesh. (Theriac. l. c.) See also Galen (Ther. ad Pison.)