Besides these already treated of, there is yet another way of being Poisoned, and that is by Venomous Steams and Exhalations, or a Poisonous Air taken into the Body by the Breath.
This is notorious enough, and Authors do upon many Occasions make mention of it; but when they come to explain the particular manner how this Kills, they most commonly reduce it to some of the Poisons which prove destructive by being admitted into the Stomach, alledging that Malignant Fumes and Airs are therefore fatal, because impregnated with Arsenical Mercurial, and the like, Deleterious Μιάσματα or Particles, they do convey these into the Blood; which being of a very Corrosive Nature, must necessarily do hurt both to the Fluid and Solid Parts.
And indeed that the Fumes of these same Minerals are very pernicious, and Air fill’d with their Atoms very unfit for Respiration, is most certain; but to argue from hence, that all deadly Vapours and Malignant Airs owe their Mischief to these only, is too fond and ill-grounded a Conceit; since upon a due Enquiry it will appear, that there may be, and are, Mortiferous Exhalations from the Earth, infecting the Air, of a Nature so different from any of those Poisons, that the very Substance from which they arise may not be at all hurtful, tho’ taken into the Stomach it self.
Venomous Steams and Damps from the Earth the Latins in one Word call’d Mephites [(152)].
This, as many other Tuscan Words, comes from a Syriac Theme, which signifies to blow or breathe [(153)].
And in ancient times several Places were notorious for ’em; so the Mephitis of Hierapolis was very Famous, of which Cicero, Galen, but more particularly, and from his own Sight and Knowledge Strabo [(154)] makes mention.
Such another was the Specus Corycius in Cilicia, which upon the account of its stinking deadly Air, such as is thought to proceed from the Mouth of Dragons, which the Poets give to Typhon, was call’d Cubile Typhonis. This Pompon. Mela [(155)] describes; and it is indeed as ancient as Homer [(156)]; for Arima, in which he places it, was, as Eustathius says, a Mountain of Cilicia.
Neither are such Fumes as these infrequent Now-a-days; and though mostly taken notice of in Mines, Pits, and other Subterraneous Places, yet they are sometimes met with in the Surface of the Earth too, especially in Countries fruitful of Minerals, or pregnant with Imbowelled Fires; such are Hungary and Italy, which latter (as Seneca [(157)] observes) has always been more than any other remarkable for ’em.
I shall therefore, having had the opportunity of making some Remarks upon One the most Famous of all in those Parts, give as good an account as I can of That, and its manner of Killing; which tho’ I dare not affirm to be universally applicable to any Mephitis whatsoever, yet seems plainly to be the Case of most of ’em; and where it is not, this simple Mischief will only be found to be complicated with another; and then some extraordinary Symptoms or Appearances in the Animals kill’d, will easily make a Discovery of the Additional Venom and Malignity.
This Celebrated Mofeta taken notice of, (or at least some other hereabouts) even in the time of Pliny [(158)], is about Two Miles distant from Naples, just by the Lago d’ Agnano, in the way to Pozzoli or Puteoli, and is commonly call’d la Grotta de Cani, because the Experiment of its deadly Nature is frequently made upon Dogs; tho’ it be as certainly fatal to any other Animal, if it come within the reach of its Vapour; for Charles the Eighth of France prov’d it so upon an Ass; and two Slaves put into it by order of D. Pietro di Toledo, Viceroy of Naples, with their Heads held down to the Earth, were both kill’d [(159)].