Lungs fill’d with a very thick Froth[[56]].
[56]. Mr. Benj. Motte’s Philosophical Transact. abridg. Vol. 1. Part. ii. p. 220, 221, where you may find many Instances of the same Nature.
The Remarkables here are,
I. That a small Portion of this venemous Liquid should in so short a time do such terrible Executions: That it should so soon infect so great a Quantity of Fluid, as the whole Mass of Blood in the wounded Animal. A very learned Physician accounts for it thus, viz.
“That in the Drop of Poison are pungent Salts, by which little Bladders in the Blood are prickt, and the elastick Matter in them being let out, carries those acute Salts thro’ the whole Region of Fluids; upon which follows a Coagulation[[57]].”
[57]. Dr. Mead’s Mechanical Account.
All venemous Creatures hurt, by instilling a liquid Poison into the Wound, suppose the Wound to be given by the Tooth or Tail. The aforesaid ingenious Physician says, viz. “This venemous Juice it self is of so inconsiderable a Quantity, that it is no more than one good Drop that does the Execution.”——In order, adds he, to examine the Texture of the Liquor, I enrag’d a Serpent till it bit upon something solid, so as to void its Poison; whose Parts I view’d with a Microscope as nicely as I could.
“Upon the first Sight, I could discover nothing but a Parcel of small Saks nimbly floating in the Liquor, which soon shot out, as it were, into Crystals of incredible Tenuity and Sharpness, with something like Knots here and there, from which they seemed to proceed; so that the whole Texture in a manner represented a Spider’s Web, tho’ infinitely finer, and more minute; and yet withal so rigid were these pellucid Spicula or Darts, that they remain’d unalter’d upon my Glass for several Months[[58]]”.
——N. B. These saline Particles appeared to be Acids.