Viper

“ That although the doctors tried,
Not the best in Edinburgh
Could assist him, and he died.
And THE MORAL is: The piper
Of the matter made a botch;
One can hardly blame the viper
If she took a nip of Scotch,
For she only did what he did,
And his nippie wasn’t small,
Otherwise, you see, he needed
Not have seen the snake at all. ”

“ When these reptiles wish to copulate, the viper goes down to the shore and hisses in the direction of the sea, which is a signal to the lamprey; she understands the sound, and issues from the water, but does not immediately hasten to her lover, knowing that he carries deadly poison in his teeth, but gliding up a rock, there waits until he has cleansed his mouth. After looking at one another for a space, the loving viper vomits forth the poison so dreaded by his mistress, and she upon perceiving this, descends and entwines him in her embrace, no longer dreading his amorous bite. ”

“ Child, what I felt at that moment I can scarcely say, but it was a sufficient punishment for all the sins I ever committed; and there we two were, I looking up at the viper, and the viper looking down upon me, flickering at me with its tongue. It was only the kindness of God that saved me: all at once there was a loud noise, the report of a gun, for a fowler was shooting at a covey of birds, a little way off in the stubble. Whereupon the viper sunk its head, and immediately made off over the ridge of the hill, down in the direction of the sea. ”

“ Another feature of the chalk-pit is the viper's bugloss. If, as Thoreau says, there is a flower for every mood of the mind, the viper's bugloss must surely belong to that mood which is associated with the pomps and splendours of the high summer noontide. Gorgeous and tropical in its colouring beyond all other British flowers, as it rears its bristly green spikes, studded profusely with the pink buds that are turning to an equally vivid blue, it seems instinct with the spirit of a fiery summer day. ”

“ Talking continuously, making violent gestures and darting swift glances about with his eyes, the conjurer caught up the vipers and threw them from one spot to another. Then he seized one of them and opened its jaws with a stick, so that the long, sharp fangs with venom dropping from them could be plainly seen. After this he carried the viper round the circle, exhibiting it to his gaping audience and reminding them of the deadly poison of the animal. ”

“ This is noticeable in the African ‘nose-horned viper’ (Vipera nasicornis) , p. 322, where they present a curiously complicated structure.
Too minute to examine except under the magnifying-glass, or to attempt to illustrate, we can convey only a general idea of these curious viper scales, which to the touch are spinous, and rough as a coarse brush. They must form an unpleasant perch for a bird, if it be true that the latter is enticed by the horns of some vipers to come and peck at them, as at a worm. ”

“ The Viper, on seeing the Mouse, followed it cautiously, striking a hind limb, which appeared to cause very little inconvenience to the Mouse; the Viper, however, still following up, struck again, this time fairly across the loins, and then retired to the further part of the case, seemingly to await results. In less than two minutes the Mouse was dead. Soon the Viper came slowly towards the body, with head lowered, prodding the earth as if smelling the track of its prey, and, although the body was completely hidden by grassy turf, went straight to it. ”

“ Often under sheds long unmoved the dangerous viper lurks and shrinks fearfully out of the daylight; or that sore plague of oxen, wont to glide under the shadow of the roof and dart his venom at the flock, the snake nestles in the ground. ”

“ To dream of a viper, foretells that calamities are threatening you. To dream that a many-hued viper, and capable of throwing itself into many pieces, or unjointing itself, attacks you, denotes that your enemies are bent on your ruin and will work unitedly, yet apart, to displace you. ”

“ The young of the viper is born inside a membrane that bursts from off the young creature in three days; and at times the young viper eats its way out from the inside of the egg. The mother viper brings forth all its young in one day, twenty in number, and one at a time. The other serpents are externally oviparous, and their eggs are strung on to one another like a lady's necklace; after the dam has laid her eggs in the ground she broods over them, and hatches the eggs in the following year. ”

“ Viper.
Ringed Snake.
As you propose the good of mankind to be an object of your publications, you will not omit to mention common salad-oil as a sovereign remedy against the bite of the viper. As to the blind worm (Anguis fragilis, so-called because it snaps in sunder with a small blow) , I have found, on examination, that it is perfectly innocuous. [e6] A neighbouring yeoman (to whom I am indebted for some good hints) killed and opened a female viper about the 27th May: he found her filled with a chain of eleven eggs, about the size of those of a blackbird ”

“ If they discharge all their Artillery to-day, their Arsenal will be full to-morrow. ’Tis true, by a speedy repeated Emission of Poison at one time, the Viper loses its force, probably by a Diminution in Quantity; but is recruited in a Short space. Thus, one Viper cannot poison six Creatures, one immediately after another; the Truth of which is confirmed by uncontestable Facts.——An Experiment was made by Dr. Areskine, when he was at Paris.—Having got a large female Viper, he made it bite six Pigeons, one immediately after another. ”

“ Instead of the long, gracefully tapered body of these, the Viper is short and thick in the body with a short tail. So far as the length is concerned, the average Viper is less than two feet. A few exceptionally large females have been recorded measuring two feet eleven inches; but the female is always slightly longer than the male—usually about an inch more. Two feet three inches may be regarded as the ordinary maximum for a female. The head is flatter above, and it broadens behind the eyes, so that it is very distinct from the body ”

“ The viper vomits forth its venom in respect for marriage; and you, will you not put aside the barbarity and the inhumanity of your soul, out of respect for your union? Perhaps the example of the viper contains another meaning. The union of the viper and of the lamprey is an adulterous violation of nature. You, who are plotting against other men’s wedlock, learn what creeping creature you are like. ”

“ Violone, vē-ō-lō′nā, n. the largest kind of bass viol, having strings tuned an octave lower than the violoncello. [It.,—viola.]
Viper, vī′pėr, n. a genus of venomous snakes, representative of family Viperidæ—the Common Viper or adder being the only poisonous snake indigenous to Britain: loosely, any venomous serpent except a rattlesnake, any cobriform serpent: any base, malicious person.—adjs. Vī′perine, related to or resembling the viper; Vī′perish, like a viper; Vī′perous, having the qualities of a viper: venomous: malignant.—adv. ”

“ Yet, as there is a notable gradation in the development of the poison apparatus, the perfection of which culminates in the viper, it seems not unreasonable to decide that as a rule a viper is more virulent than an elaps of the same size—let us say bulk, because the viperine snakes are short and thick and the elapidæ long and slight. Each snake is supplied with venom adequate to its own requirements, that is, enough to kill the [537] prey on which it subsists, a large viper with a larger supply for a larger animal; and a small elaps with enough to kill its little bird or mouse. ”

“ Vipers are sometimes encountered among the heather where it is sandy. A viper will sometimes wind itself round the stem of a thorn bush, and thus, turning its head in every direction, defy a dog. Whichever side the dog approaches, the viper turns its venomous head. Dogs frequently kill them, and are sometimes bitten, generally in the face, when the dog's head swells in a few minutes to twice its natural size. ”

“ I need not go into particulars, for I know perfectly well that this Maitland knows to a nicety how the thing was done. The Daboia Russellii, or Russell’s viper, is one of the best known and most deadly of Indian vipers. I procured one of these reptiles at the cost of great delay and some slight risk. That is the whole story. On the night of the murder I took the viper in a box and went down to the water-front, near the Darrow estate. Here I cut a small pole from a clump of alders, made a split in one end of it, and thrust it over the tail of the viper. ”

“ The flesh of vipers being eaten, clear the sight, help the vices of the nerves, resist poison exceedingly, neither is there any better remedy under the sun for their bitings than the head of the viper that bit you, bruised and applied to the place, and the flesh eaten, you need not eat above a dram at a time, and make it up as you shall be taught in troches of vipers. ”

“ More perilous even than these animals, to the wanderer in the forest, are the innumerable serpents that lurk beneath the accumulation of dead leaves bestrewing the ground. The most deadly is a small viper about ten inches long, the only species of the viper family as yet discovered in South America. ”

“ At last a Mole came tumbling up from under his hill, and stated that he had seen an enormous Viper—monstrum horrendum, as my friend the Rat would say—darting at the Toad. When brought face to face with the remains of the deceased, he swore positively to its identity. The Bulldogs were instantly despatched in search of the Viper, and falling valiantly upon him during his sleep, brought him before the judges.
The court is opened; the indictment is read; the Ant, a distinguished analyst, who had been ordered to examine the contents of the stomach, proceeds to read his analysis—marked attention. ”

“ It is said, that the viper is the only one among the serpents that conceals itself in the earth; the others lurking either in the hollows of trees or in holes in the rocks.1866 Provided they are not destroyed by cold, they can live there, without taking food, for a whole year.1867 During the time that they are asleep in their retreat, none of them are venomous. ”

“ A viper, indeed, cannot bite when it is dead, yet it is infectious by its stink and corruption. A sheep, while it lives, nourishes us with its milk, clothes us with its wool, and enriches us by its increase ”

“ The bite is much more venomous than that of the common viper; as I have been assured that a dog which had been bitten by a red viper, expired before he had reached the extremity of a down in his way home. ”

“ They say that the viper, when burnt and reduced to ashes, is a remedy for the bite of the same beast. How much better had it been that it should not exist at all, than that a remedy should be required against it drawn from itself? ”

“ The means are not difficult. A viper has hidden itself amongst the roots of their tree and feeds on its sap; let them kill the viper and transplant the tree, and they will soon see it covered with fruit as it used to be. ”

“ Whereas he saith, that it being by Experience evident, that all the venom of the Viper is in his Teeth and Jaws, that whipping is not only to no purpose, but also dangerous, in regard that the Spirits being chased and irritated may beget venom in the body, where was none. He asserts also, that the water, in which the viper-flesh is boyled, carryes away all the vertue; and that the bones that are thrown away are no less useful, than the flesh itself. ”

“ The viper has a couple of fangs, or long hollow teeth, which lie flat along the back of its mouth, but when it is angry it opens its mouth, erects its teeth and strikes with them. They are hollow, and down through the tubes the poison comes from a bag at their roots. ”

“ The viper-catcher provides himself with a cleftstick, and stealing up to the reptile when basking, pins his head to the ground with the cleft, and seizing the tail, throws the reptile into a bag. As they do not destroy the fangs, these men are frequently bitten in the pursuit of their business, but their remedy is either the fat of vipers, or salad oil, which they take inwardly, and apply externally, after squeezing the wound. We are not aware of any well-authenticated fatal case in man from a viper bite, but it fell to our lot some years ago to see a valuable pointer killed by one. ”

“ An angry beast he is, hissing and struggling, making vain attempts to reach his captor's hand. He can only lift his head a few inches, and there is no fear at all of his doing any harm. There is no doubt about the harm he can do. A viper's bite, especially in hot weather, is painful enough, though seldom [Pg 145] dangerous. ”

“ Moses Charas studied vipers very closely, and wrote a treatise on their use in medicine (1669) which had a great reputation. He adopted the curious view of Van Helmont that the poison of the viper, which was supposed to be contained in the animal’s saliva, was not there normally, but was created as the effect of rage and terror. According to Charas, the head of the viper, grilled and eaten, would cure its bite, or hung to the neck would cure quinsy. The brain similarly hung on the neck of an infant would greatly assist in cutting the teeth. ”

“ For the Table Book.
JACK THE VIPER.
This is an odd name for a man, who does not bear the appearance of a viper, or “a snake in the grass.” He is a rough sort of fellow, has been at Waterloo, but did not obtain a medal. He, nevertheless, carries the hue of a triumphant soldier, wears an honest sunburnt face, and might be trusted with his majesty’s great seal, or that of another description in the British Museum. He is a lover of ringing bells and swine; but without regular employment. A singular piece of human construction, lone, and erratic in his love of nature. ”

“ Vipera berus, Linnæus
The Northern Viper, or Adder Form.—Short and stout. Snout flat above, rarely slightly concave, the upper contour broadly rounded or truncate in front, the canthus well marked, sometimes slightly raised, the loreal region nearly vertical. Eye as a rule smaller in females than in males, as large or nearly as large as the nasal shield; its vertical diameter equals or a little exceeds its distance from the mouth. Length of tail five and a half to nine times in total length in males, eight to ten and three-quarter times in females.
231
Fig. ”