CHAP. XVI. Of the biting of a Viper or Adder, and the symptomes and cure thereof.
THe remedies that were formerly mentioned against the bitings of madde dogges, the same may bee used against all venemous bites and stings, yet neverthelesse each poyson hath his peculiar anti∣dote. Vipers or Adders (as we vulgarly terme them) have in their * 1.1 gummes, or the spaces betwene their teeth, little bladders filled with a virulent sanies, which is pressed out into the part that they bite with their teeth. There forthwith ariseth a pricking paine, the part at the first * 1.2 is much swollen, and then the whole body, unlesse it be hindred: grosse and bloo∣dy filth sweats out of the wound, little blisters rise round about it, as if it were burnt, the wound gnawes, and as it were feeds upon the flesh, great inflammation possesseth the liver and the gummes, and the whole body becomes very dry, becomming of a yellowish or pale colour, with thirst unquenchable; the bellie is griped by fits, a cholericke vomiting molesteth them, the stomacke is troubled with a hicketting, the patients are taken with often sownings, with cold sweate, the forerunner of death, unlesse you provide by fit medicines for the noble parts, before the poyson shall in∣vade them. Mathiolus tells that he saw a countrie-man, who, as he was mowing a meadow, by chance cut an Adder in two with his sithe, which when he thought it * 1.3 was dead, he tooke the one halfe whereon the head remained, without any feare in his hand, but the enraged creature, turning about her head, cruelly bit him by one of his fingers, which finger as men usually doe (especially when as they thinke of no such thing) hee put into his mouth, and sucked out the blood and poyson, and pre∣sently fell downe dead.
When as Charles the ninth was at Montpelier, I went into the shop of one Farges an Apothecary, who then made a solemne dispensation of Treacle, where not sa∣tisfying * 1.4 my selfe with the looking upon the vipers which were there in a glasse, rea∣dy for the composition, I thought to take one of them in my hands, but whilest that I too curiously and securely handled her teeth which were in her upper jaw, covered with a skinne, as it were a case to keepe the poyson in, the beast catched hold of the very end of my fore-finger, and bit me in the space which is betweene the naile and the flesh; whence presently there arose great pain, both by reason of the part endued with most exquisite sense, as also by the malignity of the poyson: forthwith I ex∣ceeding straitly bound my finger above the wound, that so I might presse forth the blood and poyson, lest they should diffuse themselves further over the body. I dis∣solved old treacle in aqua vitae, wherein I dipped and moistened cotton, and so put it to the wound, and within a few dayes I throughly recovered by this onely medi∣cine. * 1.5 You may use in stead of Treacle, Mithridate and sundry other things, which by reason of their heat are powerfull drawers, as a squill rosted in hot embers, gar∣licke and leeks beaten and applyed, barly floure tempered with vinegar, hony, and goats dung, and so applyed like a pultis. Some thinke it sufficient forthwith to wash and foment the wound with vinegar, salt, and a little hony. Galen writes that the poyson inflicted by the bite of a viper, may bee drawne forth by applying to the * 1.6 wound the head of a viper, but othersome apply the whole viper beaten to mash.