[e] The motive Parts, and Motion of Caterpillars, are useful, not only to their Progression and Conveyance from Place to Place; but also their more certain, easy and commodious gathering of Food. For having Feet before and behind, they are not only enabled to go by a kind of Steps made by their fore and hind Parts; but also to climb up Vegetables, and to reach from their Boughs and Stalks for Food at a Distance; for which Services, their Feet are very nicely made both before and behind. Behind, they have broad Palms for sticking too, and these beset almost round with small sharp Nails, to hold and grasp what they are upon: Before, their Feet are sharp and hook’d, to draw Leaves, &c. to them, and to hold the fore-part of the Body, whilst the hinder-parts are brought up thereto. But nothing is more remarkable in these Reptiles, than that these Parts and Morton are only temporary, and incomparably adapted only to their present Nympha-State; whereas in their Aurelia-State, they have neither Feet nor Motion, only a little in their hinder parts: And in their Mature-State, they have the Parts and Motion of a flying Insect, made for Flight.
[f] It is a wonderful pretty Mechanism, observable in the going of Multipedes, as the Juli, Scolopendræ, &c. that on each Side the Body, every Leg hath its Motion, one very regularly following the other from one End of the Body to the other in a Way not easy to be describ’d in Words; so that their Legs in going, make a kind of Undulation, and give the Body a swifter Progression than one would imagine it should have, where so many Feet are to take so many short Steps.
[g] Vertebrarum Apophysos breviores sunt, præcipuè juxta caput, cujus propterea flexus in aversum, & latera, facilis Viperis est: secus Leonibus, &c.——Incumbit his Ossibus ingens Musculorum minutorum præsidium, tum spinas tendinum exilium magno apparatu diducentium, tum vertebras potissimum in diversa flectentium, atque erigentium. Adeoque illam corporis miram agilitatem, non tantùm (ut Aristot.) ὅτι ἐπικαμπεῖς καὶ χονδρώδεις ὁι σπόνδυλοι quoniam faciles ad flexum, & cartilagineas produxit vertebras, sed quia etiam multiplicia motûs localis instrumenta musculos fabrefecit provida rerum Parens Natura, consecuta fuit. Blas. Anat. Anim. P. 1. c. 39. de Viperâ è Veslingio.
That which is most remarkable in the Vertebræ [of the Rattle-Snake, besides the other curious Articulations,] is, that the round Ball in the lower Part of the upper Vertebra, enters a Socket of the upper Part of the lower Vertebra, like as the Head of the Os Femoris doth the Acetabulum of the Os Ischii; by which Contrivance, as also the Articulation with one another, they have that free Motion of winding their Bodies any Way. Dr. Tyson’s Anat. of the Rattle-Snake in Phil. Trans. Nᵒ. 144. What is here observ’d of the Vertebræ of this Snake, is common to this whole Genus of Reptiles.
[h] My ingenious and learned Friend, Dr. Mead, examined with his Microscope, the Texture of a Viper’s Poyson, and found therein at first only a Parcel of small Salts nimbly floating in the Liquor; but in a short Time the Appearance was chang’d, and these saline Particles were shot out into Crystals, of an incredible Tenuity and Sharpness, with something like Knots here and there, from which they seem’d to proceed; so that the whole Texture did in a Manner represent a Spider’s Web, though infinitely finer. Mead of Poysons, p. 9.
As to the Nature and Operation of this Poyson, see the same ingenious Author’s Hypothesis, in his following Pages.
This Poyson of the Viper, lieth in a Bag in the Gums, at the Upper-end of the Teeth. It is separated from the Blood by a conglomerated Gland, lying in the anterior lateral Part of the Os Sincipitis; just behind the Orbit of the Eye: From which Gland lieth a Duct, that conveys the Poyson to the Bags at the Teeth.
The Teeth are tubulated, for the Conveyance, or Emission of the Poyson into the Wound, the Teeth make; but their Hollowness doth not reach to the Apex, or Top of the Tooth, (that being solid and sharp, the better to pierce;) but it ends in a long slit below the Point, out of which the Poyson is emitted. These Perforations of the Teeth, Galen saith, the Mountebanks us’d to stop with some kind of Paste, before they suffer’d the Vipers to bite them before their Spectators. Cuts of these Parts, &c. may be seen in the last cited Book of Dr. Mead. Also Dr. Tyson’s Anat. of the Rattle-Snake, in Philos. Transact. Nᵒ. 144.
[] That Vipers have their great Uses in Physick, is manifest from their bearing a great Share in some of our best Antidotes, such as Theriaca Andromachi, and others; also in the Cure of the Elephantiasis, and others the like stubborn Maladies, for which I shall refer to the medical Writers. But there is so singular a Case in the curious Collection of Dr. Ol. Worm. related from Kircher, that I shall entertain the Reader with it. Near the Village of Sassa, about eight Miles from the City Bracciano in Italy, saith he, Specus feu caverna (vulgò La Grotta delli Serpi) duorum hominum capax, fistulosis quibusdam foraminibus in formam cribri perforata cernitur, ex quibus ingens quædam, principio veris, diversicolorum Serpentum, nullâ tamen, ut dicitur, singulari veneni qualitate imbutorum progenies quotannis pullulare solet. In hæc speluncâ Elephantiacos, Leprosos, Paralyticos, Arabriticos, Podagricos, &c. nudos exponere solent, qui mox halituum subterraneorum calore in sudorem resoluti, Serpentum propullulantium, totum corpus infirmi implicantium, suctu linctuque ita omni vitioso virulentoque humore privare dicuntur, ut repetito hoc per aliquod tempus medicamento, tandem perfecta sanitati restituantur. This Cave Kircher visited himself, found it warm, and every Way agreeable to the Description he had of it; he saw their Holes, heard a murmuring hissing Noise in them; but although he missed seeing the Serpents (it being not the Season of their creeping out) yet he saw great Numbers of their Exuviæ, or Sloughs, and an Elm growing hard by laden with them.
The Discovery of this Cave, was by the Cure of a Leper going from Rome to some Baths near this Place; who losing his Way, and being benighted, happened upon this Cave; and finding it very warm, pull’d off his Cloaths, and being weary and sleepy, had the good Fortune not to feel the Serpents about him, till they had wrought his Cure. Vid. Museum Worm. L. 3. c. 9.