Physiological action of the Poison of Vipers.
The result of numerous experiments justify us in referring this poison to the second division of our classification. The symptoms which it produces evidently depend on its absorption, and its passage into the circulation, when it exerts its peculiar action on the blood. It is somewhat singular that this poison should be perfectly inert when taken into the stomach; a fact, however, which appears to have been well known from the earliest periods; whence such wounds were commonly sucked[[478]] with impunity; and we learn that when Cato marched the remains of Pompey’s army through Africa, he very wisely informed the soldiers, who, although dying from thirst, feared to drink the waters which contained serpents, that no evil could arise from such indulgence.[[479]]
“Noxia Serpentum est admisto sanguine Pestis,
Morsu Virus habent, et Fatum Dente minantur,
Pocula Morte carent”----
Among the insects of Britain some will be found to possess fluids highly stimulant, and sometimes, although rarely, occasioning death. These British insects, however, cannot be compared in virulence with the Furia Infernalis, Pulex Penetrans, the Scorpion, and the Tarantula; but their natural history is nevertheless interesting, and the instances of mischief arising from an application of their venom are not unimportant. Of the genus Vespa we have three species, each of which possesses the property of producing violent and painful inflammation, sometimes followed by considerable danger, where the injury has been inflicted on parts of great sensibility, and in irritable habits, viz. Vespa Crabro, the hornet; V. Vulgaris, common wasp; C. Coarctata, small wasp. Instances are recorded of the wasp, having been introduced into the mouth with fruit, and produced by its sting on the velum palati a sudden swelling which has so intercepted the respiration as to occasion suffocation.[[480]] Of the Apis there are seven British species; the most remarkable of which are the Apis Rufa, or small field bee; A. Mellifica, the common hive bee; A. Terrestris, humble bee; and A. Subterranea, or great humble bee.
The sting of a single bee cannot be regarded as attended with danger, except in certain constitutions; but there are many instances of men and animals having suffered most terribly, and even fatally, by an attack of a swarm of these insects.
The supposed poison of the toad is a subject which we have already disposed of, under the literary history of poisons, page [139].
Putrescent Animal Matter.
A question has long since arisen, how far the ingestion of animal matter, in a state of putrefaction, is liable to affect the health? On the one hand it has been maintained that the custom of eating game, venison, and other species of animal food, in a state of incipient putrescence, has never been attended with any inconvenience; but appears, on the contrary, to afford a repast of easier digestion, than the flesh of recently killed animals. On the other hand, it has been asserted by Foderé,[[481]] and corroborated by the testimony of others, that corrupted meat, fish, and eggs, are undoubted poisons; if, through inadvertence, necessity, or extreme hunger, they are taken in any quantity. The same distinguished writer relates that, during the siege of Mantua, several persons who were shut up in the town were seized with gangrene of the extremities, and scurvy, in consequence of having been driven to the alternative of eating the half putrid flesh of horses. In Crantz’s history of Greenland we read an account of the death of thirty-two persons, at a missionary station, called Kangek, shortly after a repast upon the putrid brains of a Walrus.