any

shift or increase of wind) fuch as is generally occafioned by currents, and the next day we found we were 30 miles to the Southward of the reckoning. This current continued till the 22d of October, having then arrived in lat. 37: long. 13. 30. W. It fet S. by W. W. 1 miles per hour.

Having a fair wind, and a good obfervation every day, and also good aftronomical obfervations for determining the longitude, we had the greatest reafon to depend on the authenticity of the above.

No. IV.

Extract from the Journal of an Officer on board the British Ship of War, Liverpool. July, August and September, 1775

TH

HE bank from Cape Cod extends almoft as far as Cape Sable, where it joins the banks of Nova Scotia deepening gradually from 20 to 50 or 55 fathoms, which depth there is in lat. 43. In croffing the bank between lat. 41.41. and lat. 43. the bottom is very remarkable; on the outfide it is fine fand, fhoaling gradually for several leagues on the middle of the bank, it is coarse fand or fhingle with pebble ftones, on the infide it is muddy with pieces of fhells, and deepens fuddenly from 45 or 48 to 150 or 160 fathoms.

No..V.

In lat. 44. 54. N. long. 53. 19. W. on board the British Packet Chesterfield, Capt. Schuyler. July 10, 1790.

TH

HE Captain caught a codfish, and in a few minutes after it was opened and gutted, I put the thermometer into its belly, the inftrument marked 39 when in air

it was 57, and in water on the furface 52. Depth 46 fathoms.

In lat. 44. 52. N. long. 54. 57. W. July 11, 1790.

TH

HE people caught feveral codfish and hallabot, the thermometer was put into three codfish and one hallabot fucceffively, the inftant they were hauled up, and the inftrument marked 37 in every cafe. The air was at 57, and the water at the furface was 53. The first experiment was repeated after the fish was gutted, and it then marked one degree warmer. I thence conclude that the difference between the two experiments was owing to the time the fifh was in the air before the trial, and that in all the inftances the animal heat of the fit was about 16o colder than the water at the furface; and as it seems natural, from analogy, to fuppofe that animal heat is at least as warm as the fluid in which the animal lives, I conclude that the water at the bottom was as cold as 37 i. e. 168 colder than at the furface. In a former voyage it was found by decifive experiment, that near the coaft in very hot weather the water at the bottom in 18 fathoms was 12 degrees colder than at the furface.

Another reafon to fuppofe that the water was colder at bottom than the animal heat, was the great diftenfion of the cods founds when they were opened, although they had fent out innumerable bubbles of air in the paffage up; the air, therefore, within the found, muft have been much more compreffed, (either by cold or the power of the animal) below, than above, where it was at 37. Several fish that had been hauled up to the furface of the water, and then dropped from the hook, fwam light on the furface N 2

See Philofophical Tranfactions, Vol. II. page 329.

till

till they recovered their vivacity, although they loft much air in coming, up the specific gravity was therefore much lefs than at bottom, and this was probably owing to the diftenfion of the found. That fifh rife and fink in the water, by this power of increasing and diminishing their bulk, and confequently their specific gravity, is well known to naturalifts, but I was pleafed to fee the truth of that fact confirmed by thefe experiments.

JONA. WILLIAMS, JUN.

N. XI.

An account of the most effectual means of preventing the deleterious confequences of the bite of the CROTALUS HORRIDUS*, or RATTLE-SNAKE. By BENJAMIN SMITH BARTON, M. D.

Read Aug. 19, 1791.

D

URING my paffage through several of the western fettlements of Pennfylvania, and the adjoining States, in the year 1785, I made it an object of attention to acquire every poflible information refpecting the effects of the poifon of the RATTLE-SNAKE, and the methods of prevention, or of cure, which are commonly employed in those parts of our country. A very confiderable number of vegetables were either mentioned, or shown, to me, all of which, I was affured, were good for the bites of Snakes. Without being much of the skep

tick

I think it proper to confine my remarks to this fpecies of RATTLE-SNAKE, because it is that with which I am best acquainted; because it is the most common species in those parts of our country which are best known to me, and because I believe it is the most deleterious fpecies that has yet been difcovered within the limits of the United-States. I have little doubt, however, that the plan which I have recommended, and the remarks which I have made, will equally apply to the Crotalus miliarius, the Crotalus Duriffus and the other fpecies of this formidable family of ferpents which are defcribed by Linnæus, and by other writers.

tick in medical matters, I might have doubted either the veracity of my informers, or the accuracy with which their experiments and obfervations were made. It, certainly, did not require a very extenfive acquaintance with botanical or with medical fcience to difcover, that these reputed fpecificks were frequently poffeffed of proporties the most oppofite; and, confequently, that the effects of the poison of our venemous ferpents, which are fo uniform in their appearance, were capable of being obviated or removed, by a number of vegetables, perhaps no lefs different in their influence on animal bodies than they are in family, and in fpecies. I might have doubted, for a moment, whether the activity of thefe poisons was fo great, and the effects of their operation fo dangerous and fo fatal, as has been generally imagined. I was not ignorant that in the feafons of fupervening languor and torpidity the RATTLE-SNAKE, in particular, bites with feem-ing reluctance, and without any, or with but little, ill confequence arifing from the wound. I, likewife, well knew, that even in those feafons when the fun powerfully exerts its influence, at which times thefe animals are beft qualified to ftrike and to injure, individuals of the fpecies muft. often be found, the cavities of whofe venemous fangs are entirely, or nearly, deftitute of their active poifon, from. the introduction of which into the body, those alarming. fymptoms, which characterife the fuccefsful bite of this animal arifet. I could imagine that, in some instances, the poifon

Several years fince, a gentlemen made the following experiments in Philadelphia. He had a large RATTLE SNAKE brought to him alive, which he fo managed by a string that he could cafily lead it into, or out of, a clofe cage. On the first day, he fuffered this Snake to bite a chicken, which had been al ured to the mouth of the cage by crumbs of bread. In a few hours, the bird" mortified" and died. On the fecond day, another chicken was bitten in the fame manner, and furvived the injury much longer than the first. On the third day, the experiment was made upon a third chicken, which fwelled much, but, neverthelets, recovered. On the fourth day, feveral chickens were fuffered to be bitten, without receiving any injury. After this, it is faid, the Snake grew larger and fatter. M. S. by my father, penes me. truth of thefe experiments feems to be confirmed by the original and very well-written account of the fecond volume of the Count de la Cepede's Hiftoire naturelle des Serpens, &c. publifhed

The

poifon might be thrown into ligamentous or tendinous matter, from which there would be little probability of an abforption into the mafs of blood. Thefe laft mentioned circumstances enabled me to understand how, in fome inftances at leaft, the internal ufe of the various vegetables which were employed, might have led my informers to fuppofe that thofe vegetables had accomplished a cure.

Upon examining the fubject more minutely, I found that although the principal dependance feemed to be placed on the internal ufe of vegetables, yet the employment of external means was evidently the most important part, both of the prevention and of the cure. In general, the first thing that was attended to, after a perfon had been bitten by the RATTLE-SNAKE, was to throw a tight ligature above the part into which the poiton had been introduced: at leaft, this was the practice whenever the fituation of the wounded part admitted of fuch an application The wound was next fcarified, and a mixture of falt and gunpowder, fometimes either of thefe articles feparately, was laid upon the part. Over the whole was applied a picce of the bark of the White-Walnut*. At the fame time, fome one, frequently more than one, of the vegetables which were mentioned to me, were given internally, either in decoction, or infufion, along with large quantities of milk.

Such is the rude and fimple practice of our western fettlers for preventing, or for curing, the dangerous effects of the bite of the RATTLE-SNAKE. They likewife extend this practice to the bites of several other kinds of ferpents, the hiftory of which will form the subject of a memoir,

lished in the Appendix to the second volume of the monthly review enlarged : fee page 11. The fimple experiments which I have juft related deferve to be attended to. Tay enable us to affign a reafon why perfons who have adually been bitten by the RATTLE-SNAKE have fometimes experienced very inconfiderable, or no bad, cenfequences from the wound: they enable us to difcover in what manner many vegetables have acquired a reputation for curing the bites of ferpents, without our recurring to the very difagreeable neceflity of arraigning the veracity of thofe from whom our information is derived: and, lafly, they teach us a phyfiological fact, that the poifon of the RATTLE-SNAKE is fecreted very flowly.

The Juglans alba of Linnæus.