A CONTINUATION Of the NEW EXPERIMENTS CONCERNING VIPERS.
Finisht in the Press at Paris, August 4. 1671.

I Believed, I had sufficiently esta­blish'd my opinion touching the Poison of Vipers by abun­dance of Experiments, suppor­ted by Reasons, heretofore made publick: But there hath since appear'd at Paris a Letter of Signor Redi, in which he opposes my sentiments: And he being a person, whose merit hath acquir'd him a great reputation among the Learned, that Letter of his hath not been without making some im­pression in the minds of many, and in some e­ven of those, that had relish'd my opinion, in [Page 40] favour of which they seem'd to have already declared themselves.

I might indeed have defended my self as to that which is against me in that Letter, soon after it appear'd; having reasons strong and numerous enough to maintain and justifie all I had advanced in my writing: But I thought it better to deferr it till Spring, to the end that after I should have made New Experi­ments, and the more assur'd my self of all, I might, by a renew'd knowledge of the truth, afterwards the better perswade the publick thereof. It will therefore appear by this Se­quel of Experiments, here set down, that I am so far from changing my Opinion, that I have reason to be more strongly than ever confir­med in what I embraced at first.

I do herewith sincerely declare, that when I published my book, my chief aim was, faithfully to relate all the truths I had disco­ver'd, and not to offend Signor Redi, whom I exceedingly esteem and honour for his rare Talents, and whose friendship I hope to have a share in; so far was I from pretending to do any thing that might make him write a­gainst my Book, or from fore-seeing that e­ver I should have occasion to labour to de­fend my self against him: Which yet I since found otherwise, by the Letter he hath writ­ten [Page 41] against me, and even without honoring me with a Copy of it, wherewith he hath gra­tified many persons at Paris and elsewhere, e­ven after I had had the advantage of some Let­terary Commerce with him, as I might easily justifie.

I can besides protest, that when I resolved to contradict certain points of his first Let­ter, it was in a manner against my will, and because I could not at all dispense with it, ex­cept I would have baffled my senses, and that light I saw my self, together with a great num­ber of witnesses. I can also assure, that I should now be very ready to un-say what I have affirm'd upon this subject, and to agree with him, if I were not altogether perswaded of the contrary in the main things he hath written against my Sentiments.

After these Protestations, being well assu­red as well by Reason, as by many new Expe­riments newly made, that I have asserted no­thing but what is true; I found▪ my self in­dispensably obliged to maintain it, and to render a good office to the publick, by endea­vouring to shew that 'tis very difficult reaso­nably to oppose any thing to the contrary.

The difference between Signor Redi and me consists chiefly in this, That he Pretends, the Jellow Liquor contain'd in the Vesicles [Page 42] of the Gums of Vipers, to be the only and true seat of their Poison; That this juyce is not venomous when taken at the mouth, but that it is so when let into the wounds made by a Viper whilst she is alive, and even in those, which she may be forced to make seve­ral days after she is dead, provided that yel­low liquor do intervene; That the same li­quor drawn from a live Viper, as well as that of a dead one, is always venomous if let into wounds, and mingled with the blood of the Animal wounded, whether it be used when li­quid, or after it is dryed and reduced to pow­der; and that it generally kills all kind of Animals into the wounds of which it shall have been intromitted.

But I, who of all these points can admit of none but that of the innocence of the yellow liquor when taken at the mouth, and oppo­sing my self to all the rest; do say, That the Poison of a Viper is no where but in her enra­ged Spirits; that the yellow juyce as well of a live Viper, and even a vexed one, as of one that is either newly dead, or hath been so for several days, contains in it no poison at all, neither in the biting, nor taken inwardly, nor put into wounds, nor mingled with the blood, nor any other way wherein it may be used; that it kills nor infects any kind of ani­mals; [Page 43] and that it is nothing but a meer and innocent Saliva.

The question must principally be decided by matter of Fact; though it may also be cleared by very pertinent reasons. I am far from accusing Signor Reds of unfaithfuless in his Experiments; though they were not made in publick as mine, and that some thing might be said as to the formalities of the biting, and the using of the yellow liquor: His reputati­on is too well grounded to be blamed; and this is the consideration which troubles me most. Mean time I see the contrary to what he hath advanced against my Book; and the truths which I there oppose are so clearly seen in my Experiments first and last, as well in those I have made only in the presence of some curious persons, as in those I have late­ly made in publick, and before a great num­ber of Physitians and other persons very in­telligent in these matters. So that I can no [...] ought any longer to hide those truths, which are the chief inducement of writing this dis­course.

We need not wonder that Signor Redi, ha­ving made all his Experiments by order and at the expence of so great a Prince, who is as curious as he is Munificent, had Vipers and all sorts of Animals in far greater number than [Page 44] I had; I, who did all from my self, at my own charges, and with a meer desire to discern truth from falshood. Nor do I think, I was obliged to multiply expences when the truth was found sufficiently clear'd up, and all the by-standers acknowledged, that I had made sufficient tryals for every Experiment. For since he hath contented himself with having made some of the yellow liquor to be swal­lowed by one only Man, one only Duck, one only Kid, thence to know and to assure him­self of its innocence when swallow'd, without making a greater number of Experiments; He must not blame me for having candidly bounded my curiosity, after I had in divers things made many more Experiments, then he mentions he hath made upon this subject; as appears by what he writeth p. 17, & 18. of his first Letter. I find therefore, that he hath no great cause to complain of me (as he doth, under the name of those Illustrious Authors, to whom he ascribes my Book in his Letter) for not having vouchsafed to make Experiments enow to confirm the truth of the Observati­ons about Vipers, contain'd in his first Let­ter of 1664. He had not, I say, great cause to speak of it after such a manner, since I did do so but in imitation of him, and because he had in the same Letter advanced and assured [Page 45] particulars, which required not I should make more tryals then those I have described in my Book: Although I can assure to have made more then I have recited. He knows very well, that about the end of pag. 23. of his first Letter he used these words.

Equel veleno shizza tutto fuora, se non al primo, almeno al secondo morso; si che il terzo (epiù volte l'ho esperimentato) non è velenoso:That is, And that poison issues all out, if not at the first, at least at the second biting; so that the third (which I have often experimented) is not venomous.

And if, because of the respect I bear to the writings of a person of so high a reputation, I thought among divers other Experiments, that having made one and the same Viper, e­very time vexed, to bite five several Pige­ons, which all died, and even the last of them sooner then the rest, I might stop there; I think Signor Redi hath nothing to reproach me with. He had assured in his first Letter, and assures the same in his latter, That all the poison did lodge in the yellow liquor, and that this poison was all exhausted if not at the first, yet at least at the second biting, and that he had often experimented that the third was no more venomous: So that, if I was per­swaded, that all the yellow Liquor must be [Page 46] come out by the second biting made upon the second Pigeon, and if, after that, I have seen dye three other Pigeons by the fresh bitings of the same Viper that had bitten the two first; I do not think that Sign. Redi hath right to accuse me for not having done enough: He might rather have done me that justice as to acknowledge, that I had done more then e­nough to maintain my Reflexions, and that I was obliged from that time to seek the poi­son elsewhere then in the yellow liquor, in regard it did no longer intervene, according to him, in the three last bitings, and that the three last Pigeons were as soon, yea sooner, dead then the two first, of the death of which he could charge the yellow liquor. If I could not find, no more then Sign. Redi, in all the body of the Viper, any other visible or pal­pable part that was venomous, and that might justly be declared to be the seat of the poison, and the true cause of the death which ensued upon the three last bitings; he must not wonder, if I have sought and found it in the vexed Spirits, and if I have grounded my self upon the best evidence, I could get from Experiments and Reason.

But since the chief motive of my tryals hath been the desire of exactly knowing the Truth concerning those matters; having seen that [Page 47] Sign. Redi, pag. 31. of his last Letter hath desired I would make new experiments after his Objections against me: To be the more as­sured of all, I have been willing to give him that satisfaction, in giving it to my self. For, in the moneth of May last, in the Chymical La­boratory of the Royal Garden, in the pre­sence of two or three hundred by standers, both Physitians and others, capable to judge of it, and worthy to be credited; from a­mongst many live Vipers, sent me out of Dau­phine, and divers parts of Poitou, I chose a great Femal-Viper, that was lusty enough notwithstanding the great way she came, and having open'd her jawes, I very carefully cleared and squeezed out of them at several repetitions, all the yellow liquor contained in the bags of her gums, and that also which might be diffused about the neighbouring parts, with a fine piece of linnen cloth wound about the handle of a pen knife: Which done, I took the same Viper with Pincers about hér neck, and angred her in making her to fasten her teeth into the end of her tail, and in pres­sing from time to time her neck with those Pincers; and immediately after I presented to her five Pigeons and two Pullets one after another, to bite them in the most fleshy part of their Chest, having irritated her every time [Page 48] of her biting. I purposely wounded also six Pigeons and Pullets in divers places, in the presence of all the company, and let into the wounds some drops of the yellow liquor, drawn from the Vesicles of newly enraged Vi­pers. I laid both sorts a part; and the com­pany parted about an hour after, before which time, five of the Pigeons and Pullets, that had been bitten, were dead, and the two remaining died about an hour after; but the Pigeons and Pullets, which I had wounded, and in whose wounds I had put in some of the said juyce, ailed nothing, but that there ap­peared some lividness, at the place wounded, and such an one as might have been there from the sole wounding them, and without any concurrence of that liquor. Two days after, I shew'd the company the same woun­ded Pullets and the same Pigeons, which were very well, and had their wounds almost perfectly healed up, only there remain'd a little blewness about the wounded parts. I would then have wounded the same animals a­gain in other places, and intromitted fresh yellow liquor: some also of the by-standers proposed to let into one of these creatures some of this yellow liquor by that way of Transfusion, that hath lately been made in di­vers parts of Europe, of some stranger blood [Page 49] into the veins of men, that so this juyce be­ing mingled with the blood by the ordinary circulation, it might be able to discover what ever it could do. I readily complied with their motion, whereupon the intromission of this liquor was attempted upon one of the same Pigeons that had been wounded two days before. One Physitian and two Chirur­gions did the work one after onother, in ma­king both the incision and the ligature of the most discernable vessels of the right wing: But they let the Pigeon loose so much blood, that it dyed soon after. Seeing this, I said, that the Pigeon dyed only from the loss of its blood, and not from the letting in of the yel­low liquor; and that it would be necessary, one only Chirurgion of the Company shou'd make a new operation upon another of the same Animals, that had been wounded 2 days before, and upon whom that yellow Juyce had also been tryed. The Operation was made accordingly at the same time upon a Pullet, which did not only escape again, but was seen the next day and the following days by the whole company to be very well; as were al­so the other animals that had been wounded again at the same time, and received of the yellow liquor, though without the way of transfusion. Yet true it is, that one of the [Page 50] Pigeons, that had been the second time woun­ded, was found dead some time after its be­ing wounded, in a close earthen Furnace, ve­ry hot, and standing close by such another, where I then distilled some spirit and oyl of Tobacco, and the death of which ought to be imputed to the piercing vapors of this di­stillation, or to the excessive heat of the Fur­nace in which it had been shut up, which was found so hot, that the heat of it could not be endured by ones hand; besides that being closed, almost no air could enter.

Which being thus passed, yet forasmuch as the reputation of Sign. Redi had acquired him much esteem and favour from many per­sons in Paris, I perceived some of the com­pany yet inclined to doubt, whether this yel­low Juyce were always innocent. Whereup­on, having by me 4 Dogs of different bigness, I press'd those that seemed most to doubt, that they would transfuse or cause to be trans­fused some of that reputed poisonous liquor into all those Dogs, or at least into one or o­ther of them; but how instant soever I was, no body would undertake it. It was al­ledged, that those Animals were too Robust to Succumb under such an operation, since the Pullet, that had endur'd it, and twice felt the yellow liquor, had escaped as well as the [Page 51] other Animals, that had been wounded again at the same time with it, and that had also re­ceived into them some of that liquor. Which obliged me to protest, it was not my fault that it was not experimented a fresh, and to pray the company to take the refusal of those per­sons for an acknowledgment of the innocence of the yellow liquor.

But not being satisfied herewith, I refer­red the matter to the next day, and promi­sed to have ready new Animals, of a lesser size than those Dogs; the more amply to ve­rifie the innoxiousness of that Juyce by new intromissions thereof into wounds.

I had then prepar'd six Pigeons, and two Carlings; and engaged a person whom I knew most favourable to Signor Redi, to make him­self the incision, and intromit the yellow li­quor as he should think best. He made such wounds as he pleased, and he did even sever the skin of the flesh round about the wounds he had made, and so far, that I could not hold to tell him smiling, he did more than Signor Redi himself said in his Letters he had done; and added, Boni esse pastoris tondere, non de glubere, A good Shepherd did Sheer, not Flea his Sheep.

One of the Catlings was bitten in the Car­tilagineous part of the Ear, without any ap­pearance [Page 52] of blood at the place of the biting; and it escaped. The other, which was much less, and a very noted one by the blackness of its colour and by having her ears cut off, was purposely wounded on the upper part of her neck behind, and also at the lower bone of the hinder part of the head; its skin alsowas separated from the flesh round about the wound, and on both sides, almost as far as to the fore part of the neck: And then as much of the yellow liquor as they would was put into both sides as well as into the wound. This Cat held down her head, by reason doubtless of the pain she endured by having in a manner been flead alive; feeling also some pain in two other places, where she had been wounded and flead. Some of the by-standers began already to mutter, and said, I should be cast, and the Cat would certainly dye; yet notwithstanding the Cat did not dye, though she was very little and taken out from under her dam; and she was shew'd to the compa­ny 24 hours after, sound and safe, although she had neither suck'd nor eaten any thing all that time. And 'tis remarkable enough, that this very Cat, having been returned to a Fry­ar to whom she belonged, and being grown big, hath yet to this day the hind-part of her skull unclosed at the place of her wound; [Page 53] and notwithstanding all that, & the falling off of some flesh and skin, that were sever'd from the places where she was flead, she is very lively and full of play, and very divertising mimick gestures.

The six latter Pigeons, that had been woun­ded at the same time, and received of the yel­low liquor, were likewise produced; and they were yet kept five or six days with the other Pigeons and Pullets that had been twice wounded before; among which was that also on which the transfusion had been imitated. At last they were killed, rosted, and eaten, in good company, of which were some of those that saw them wounded; and that found them very good and savoury meat.

Amidst all those Experiments I omitted not to try, whether the heads of Vipers newly dead, having yet their necks on, with all their yellow liquor, would be able to kill Animals, by making them to be bitten by them. I tryed it upon Pigeons and Pullets, by thrusting the teeth into them as deep as I could. I employ­ed also to the same purpose some whole Vi­pers, which I had found dead among the live ones in the barrils, and which abounded in the yellow liquor. But this was always with­out any inconvenience to the Animals bitten, so far was it from killing them.

[Page 54] I here pass by many other Experiments made at my house, in the presence of several Physitians, that did all agree in making out the innocence of the yellow liquor, and in ascri­bing the poisonousness to the enraged spirits.

Yet I must not leave here un-mentioned, what was done by three young Physitians, who being perswaded of the truth of my Experi­ments, as well concerning the innocence of the yellow liquor, as that of bitings made with­out the angred spirits, caused their fingers to be bitten, to strifes, by a dead Viper having yet all her yellow liquor, and that so deep, that the blood of it appeared to all: But they found no other inconvenience by it, but what they might have felt from prickings made by a needle.

I had certainly made a far greater number of Experiments if I had not observed, that Sign. Redi himself had already made many for me, and for the maintaining of my Senti­ments; and among others that of pag. 26. of his first Letter of Observations, where he saith,

Si mori un pollastro morsicato, &c. That is, There dyed a Pullet bitten by a Viper, the points of whose teeth I had cut off; and out of whose vessicles I had squeezed out all that ill juyce that it there.

[Page 55] For, since by his own confession, there dy­ed a Pullet by having been bitten by a Viper, the points of whose teeth he had designedly cut off, and all whose yellow liquor (which he calls the ill juyce, and will have to be the only seat of the poison) he had carefully press'd out of the vesicles of her Gums; He hath no more ground then I, to charge the death of the Pullet upon a liquor, which was there no more, nor upon the points of the teeth, which he had cut off. And he cannot avoid to accuse with me the vexed spirits of the Viper, and to fall into my opinion, viz, That the venom of the Viper is not a gross matter, but something invisible and spiritual.

And to shew again, that Signor Redi hath laboured, without being aware of it, to justi­fie my Sentiment, and that at the same time he manifestly contradicts himself, by destroying in his last Letter his first Propositions, which is, That all the venom of the Viper issues at the first, or at least at the second biting, and that the third is venomous no more, as he assureth to have often experimented; to shew that, I say, I shall alledge the words of pag. 33, 34, and 35. of his last Letter, viz.

Su'l principio di maggio scelsi una vipera, &c. That is, About the beginning of May I chose a Femal-Viper, one of the biggest and lustiest, and [Page 56] vexed her to bite ten Chickens, one after ano­ther, in the right thigh; of which the first, se­cond and third died almost in an instant; the fourth seem'd only to be sick; but the fifth and all the rest did not only not dye, but were not at all sick; and yet every time the Viper did bite, I angred and madded her exceedingly. In the moneth ofJune I repeated the Experiment in five tame Ducks, bitten by one and the same Vi­per, which also immediately after bit three young Turtle-Doves. The first wounded dyed three hours after; the second-five hours after; the rest escaped. 'Tis true, that the first men­tion'd of the Turtles dyed, but not the other two. Of twelve Ring-Doves at one time there dyed but four; but the next day of twelve others there dyed six. Of five Rabbets there dyed three; and of three Lambs the two last dyed; the first of them dying two hours after it had been biten.

These several Experiments directly con­trary to the first assertion of Signor Redi, were capable to perplex any other head but [...]is. For first, he hath seen, that of ten bul­lets bitten one after another by one only Vi­per, the three first dyed suddenly, and the fourth was somewhat sick; He hath seen, that of five Ducks and of three Pigeons, bitten one after another by a single Viper, the two first Ducks dyed, as also one of the Pigeons, which [Page 57] had been bitten even after the five Ducks: He also saw once, that of twelve Pigeons bitten, four dyed; that another time of twelve there escaped but the moiety; and that of five Rab­bets, likewise bitten, there were but two that evaded dying.

I cannot but be amazed, that all these Ex­periments have not been able to change his opinion, or at least to suspend it. Nor do I doubt but that the number of Animals that d [...]ed would have been much greater, if the bitings had been made in other places but the legs. For, besides that they have their bones, nerves, and tendons, that are able to blunt the point of the teeth at the first biting; they have also their Muscles, which are very vis­cous, and therefore fail not to imbue the teeth of the biting Viper, thereby stopping in part their Pores, and even hindring them by that v [...]scosity from entring far in the ensuing bites, and I likewise doubt not, but that will come to pass more and more in the reiteration of their bitings. Nor do I wonder, that the Ducks did not dye so soon as the Pullets or Pigeons, nor that there dyed less of them; for, besides the reasons just now alledged, they have their skin, bones, and all parts much harder, and far more difficult to be pierced by the Vipers teeth, than those of Pigeons or [Page 58] Pullets. Now I do not find any part mo [...]e proper to try divers bitings, then the fleshy part of the chest, which hath neither Nerves, nor Tendons, nor bones near, nor that Visco­sity found in the Muscles of the legs.

Mean time these Experiments made by Sign. Redi himself, must oblige him, as far as I can judge, to relinquish his first Assertion: And if he will persist to maintain, that the yellow liquor is the true seat of the poison, he must needs believe that liquor to be in­exhaustible, and that always there succeeds some fresh, in all the bitings of a Viper; or, if he will abandon his opinion, and ascribe the poison no more to the yellow liquor, he must find out some other subject to assign it to, except he please to take mine, and to lodge it in the irritated spirits; in regard that he cannot find it in the yellow liquor, which is no more there, after the second biting (as himself assureth;) and which must yet more evidently be wanting there, when designedly he had with care taken it out of the bags of the gums of the Viper that bit the Pullet, and the bite of which was followed by the death of the Animal bitten.

But if Sign. Redi should now be in an humor to alter his opinion, and to judge the yellow liquor to be necessary in all the bitings of a [Page 59] Viper (though that be an impossible thing;) his opinion would never be received by dis­interessed persons, that have seen my first and last Experiments; among which persons there are some, even of the most able, who, having heretofore examin'd the Salival Glanduls up­on the description I gave them of it after I had discover'd them, did there observe also some small Lymphatic Vessels, more numerous then those that had first appeared to me; and who, having seen the last Letter of Sign. Redi, were willing to suspend their Judgment until the making of my new Tryals, which have al­together confirm'd them in my first opinion.

For, not to speak of this, that in the pre­sence of divers persons, even of the best qua­lity, at several times and places, in divers as­semblies, & even in the Conferences of the Ab­bot Bourdelot; I have swallow'd some of the yellow liquor taken out of the bags of the gums of many live and enraged Vipers, with­out finding the least inconvenience from it, no more then the Viper-catcher of Sign. Redi: I can boldly assure all the world, that at no time, in no place, there ever dyed any animal of all those I have wounded, or seen wounded on purpose, and into the wounds of which that liquor hath been intromitted, although it had been drawn hot out of the Vesicles of [Page 60] the gums of Vipers exceedingly vexed; so far is it, that the Juyce of dead Vipers was able to annoy any animal. I can also assure, that never any head of a dead Viper, whether the Animal were who [...]e, or that head only with its neck, and though it abounded with that yellow liquor, hath done any harm to man or any other Animal, bitten by it.

The yellow liquor, which I swallow'd in one of the conferences of the Abbot Bourdelot, puts me in mind of Letter, which M. Des Tapieres, a very curious, sincere and able A­pothecary of Bourbon l' Archamband, had written to him, which was there read, and a­mong other things did relate, That in the year 1630. he had taken a Viper, whose crook'd teeth he had cut, and that he carried her in his bosom; and that after two or three days, a fan­cy taking him to approach her to his face, pressing her a little, she bit him in his lip, and thereby caused great pain to him; whereupon he flung her to the ground and in his anger crusht her in pieces; that his lip and face swelled; that a Ligature was made upon him; that Treacle was given him, and some of it applied to the bite; that at the place of the wound there appear'd a little bladder, whence issued two or three drops of li­quor of a dark yellow colour, and that [Page 61] his face remain'd very pale for a moneth.

If my opinion be asked about this Expe­riment, I declare that there is nothing in it, which I ought not to believe; and I add also, that there hapn'd nothing in it, which agrees not with the principles by me establish'd and maintain'd. For, although the great teeth of that Viper had been cut, which might have gone further, and mingled the enraged spirits of the Viper with the blood of M. Tapieres; yet they had not cut the point of the small teeth, which I shew'd in the same conference together with the other neighbouring parts in the teath of a live Viper, sent to Monsieur Bourdelot by the same Apothecary that had been bitten: of which small teeth I have here­tofore given the description and figure, as well as that of the upper and lower Jawes, in which they are fastn'd, as may be seen in my Anatomy of Vipers, in the Section of the teeth, and the third Cut of that Pook. For, al­though those little teeth have not the length nor thickness of the great ones; yet they have the same shape and the same matter; for they are bony, crooked, transparent, and very sharp; so that the vexed spirits may pass in­to them as into small Funnels, and through their Pores, as they do thorough those of the bigger ones: But they cannot go very deep, [Page 62] because their smalness permits them not to carry their openings as far as into the flesh; and all they can doe, is, to open the skin. Now to reason upon the accidents that be­fell M. Des Trapieres by this bite, as they are set down in his Letter; I see nothing in them that is not very natural, and very credi­ble. For, although the angred Spirits had entred by the openings made by the small teeth; yet they could not penetrate the flesh, nor mingle with the blood, because those a­pertures were not deep enough, and they could do no more but to make their effort 'twixt the flesh and skin; whence follow'd the swelling of the lip and face, and the im­pression of the pale colour, which appear'd there during a moneth; which accidents might at first have been easily prevented by one only dose of the volatil Salt of Vipers, which would have made the enraged Spirits to transpire, that lodged between the flesh and the skin, and could find no entry to pass further. As to the little bladder, which was for­med at the place of the bite, and the two or three drops of dark liquor that issued after­wards, that was nothing but a little serous moisture that had been gather'd there from the neighbouring parts, and that had been caused by the compression of the Ligature, [Page 63] and by the bruising made by the teeth and Jawes at the time of the biting, and without any intervention of the yellow liquor, which besides its innocence, could not have entred through such small apertures.

After so many Experiments, and upon so many Reflexions which I have made, as well on the yellow liquor, as on the irritated spi­rits of Vipers, I cannot comprehend, how the Animals of Sign. Redi could dye all and without any exception by the intromission of the yellow liquor into the wounds, he had made in them, and by the biting of heads se­ver'd, or by that of entire Vipers that had been dead several days. I have too many ex­periments to the contrary, and too many wit­nesses, to put it out of doubt, and to fix me in my first opinion.

But, to the end that among the Truths by me advanced, and consisting in matter of fact, the publick may find wherewith to be satis­fied; I thought my self obliged to explain my sense upon these matters, and to form to my self the Objections, that may be made against me.

I say therefore concerning the Tellow Li­quor, That nothing can act from it self, but ac­cording to its nature, the disposition of the matter of which it is composed, and the force [Page 64] of its activity. For example, you will not find in River Water, the taste, strength, nor particles that are found in Wine, nor will that inebriate like this: it hath not the acri­mony nor penetrancy of Urine, neither the colour not bitterness of Gall: The Spirit of Wine, that is freed from the aqueous parts, which hindred the Wine from producing the effects it was capable of, is much more sub­tile and strong, then the same wine whence it hath been drawn: The Volatil Salt of Wine hath quite another penetrating force than the Urine which contained it before its sublima­tion: And not to go from my subject; the volatil Salt of Vipers is very different from the flesh and bones of them, whence it hath been extracted; and, though in small quanti­ty, it will work more in a moment as well by its odour as its piercing vertue, than ten times as much of that matter, whence it hath been drawn, could effect in many hours: The bi­leous, sharp, salt and spirituous serosity, that is often form'd in our bodies, will suddenly produce inflammations in the eyes, tumors in the cheeks, gums, throat, and many other parts, as also Pustuls, St. Anthony fire, and the Gangrene it self; and all that it does by the composition of its parts, and the force of its activity; whereas the thick and viscous [Page 65] Phlegme will do no such thing, but chargeth nature only by its weight, cold, and tenacity: This Phlegme, I say, will ever be incapable of working with quickness, and it cannot produce any effect out very slowly, and in proportion to its power, which is extreamly confined.

So then, it is not the nature of the yellow liquor, to pass swiftly to remote parts, and there to act with vigor and violence; which is observed in the poison of a Vi­per. I say, that a tough, viscous, and in a manner insipid Saliva, cannot make any great progress in a moment. I affirm besides, that 'tis impossible, it should corporally en­ter into the holes made by the teeth, which are very small and almost invisible, and that it should also pass through the cavities of the teeth, and much less through their Pores, if any would have them pass that way. I say further, that although the teeth of a Viper should be all over imbued with that Juyce at the time of her biting; the skin of the Animal bitten, and the flesh it self, if need were, would keep it out of the bitten place, and hinder it from entring there; That though it should be able to enter, it must have a fit place to receive it, a great passage to go through, and a long time to arrive to the parts [Page 66] remote; I say also, that though it were arri­ved there, (if that were possible,) it could ne­ver act beyond the forces, which nature hath restrained it to.

Besides, if this yellow liquor were capable of any considerable operation, it would not fail to discover it either in whole or in part, when 'tis swallow'd and got into the stomach; where the place, the heat, and all things would seem to concur either to make it fer­ment, if its matter were disposed for it, or to reduce its power into action: For, by pas­sing out of the stomach into the intestins it would infect the Chyle, and make of it a poi­son, which would be carried jointly with it through the milky vessels, and through the Thoracique Ductus' s, so happily discover'd by the illustrious M. Pecquet, to descend in­to the Heart with the blood, the which is the matter, on which the poison of Vipers does so particularly exert its dominion. And this way is much more easie and large, than that of the opening, made by the teeth, by which this juyce cannot so much as enter. I say this further, that, if it were such as Sign. Redi makes it to be, it would, being taken at the mouth and let down into the stomach, impress upon the places of its passage, and those of its stay, some mark or other of its power, especi­ally [Page 67] if it did contain any Arsenical Salts, which would not fail, soon to manifest them­selves either by their taste or by some other effects: And yet all those that shall taste or swallow this yellow liquor, shall never per­ceive any malignity whether great or small, neither in the mouth, nor in the stomach, nor elsewhere. I conclude therefore from all these considerations, that this juyce contains in it no part at all, that is able to dissolve, or coagulate, or discompose any part of our bo­dy; & that it hath not any quality, manifest or occult, to shew that 'tis capable of doing so.

I add moreover, that this juyce, as flat and salivous as it is, is always found so yellow in all parts of France, that it can hardly be less colour'd than 'tis in Italy; and that they both must have altogether alike qualities, or, at least, very near such. And it would be to no purpose, to alledge in favour of Sign. Redi, that the diversity of places and climate, or that of aliments might be able to change the nature of Vipers, and cause that manifest dif­ference, there is between his Experiments and mine. For, although some diversity may be observed in other things, there can be found none in this; and if there could be some difference, it cannot be that the nature of the yellow juyce, and that of the Spirits should [Page 68] be quite changed; since we find in France the same marks in that liquor, which Sign. Redi hath found and described in that of Italy, and since our Vipers, without any intervention of that juyce, do kill as nimbly as his can do.

But I think it would be much, if in the yel­low liquor, or in the enraged spirits, there could be observ'd any small degree of quali­ty, stronger or weaker in Italy than in France. For, I have by a great number of experiments made it out, that all the Vipers of France, though taken in very different places, and of­ten such as are six score Leagues distant from one another, have their poison altogether a­like, and do kill equally. Whence I inferr, that the difference of the Vipers of Italy and France, cannot be considerable; since Dau­phiné, which is a Province in France that fur­nisheth us with many of them, and is very mountainous as well as Italy, borders upon Picmont, which is the beginning of Italy; and that the same Dauphiné, abounds in Vi­pers in its utmost extremity; and since also all Vipers, we get from thence, have their yel­low liquor always very innocent, though high colour'd. And I can truly say, that those Vipers, that have serv'd me most both in my first and last experiments, were most of them sent me out of Dauphiné, and that I was wil­ling [Page 69] to make use of such, as being commonly bigger than most of those that were sent me out of Poictou; that, at least, which serv'd me to bite the five first Pigeons, which I spake of in my first Experiments; and that which bit the seaven last Pullets and Pigeons, were of those of Dauphiné, and even of the bigger sort that could be procured.

And it would have been to no purpose to have used any tooth of a Viper sever'd from the head, and much less to wipe it dry with some bread crums, in hopes it should kill any Animal by pricking it therewith; seeing the teeth, that had of the yellow liquor upon them, without being separated from the dead heads, were not able to do any harm, no not those of live ones, without the concurrence of the enraged spirits. And if sometimes I have made use of bread-crums, sometimes of a sine linnen ragg, to wipe away all the yellow li­quor of the vesicles, that was never but in live Vipers; to shew, that it was not that li­quor which did kill, but the vexed Spirits only, entring by means of the biting.

We are not to imagine neither, that a Vi­per teareth by biting, unless having made her to thrust her teeth into the flesh of some ani­mal, you do immediately after draw her a­way by the rest of her body: We are not, I [Page 70] say, to pretend, that a Viper doth, by biting of her own accord, make any great opening, at which the yellow liquor is able to enter. For, she doth no more but thrust in her teeth far enough, and presently draw them out a­gain, with as much ease as a Cat draws out his claws when he will. Besides, you cannot per­ceive but two very little holes, which do al­so seem as 'twere closed again by the flesh, and which would hardly be discern'd, if the pain of the bite, or the accidents ensuing, did not oblige us to look very narrowly to it.

We also never see, that the poison fastens it self to the part bitten, nor that the evil be­gins by a mortification, or by a gangrene there. For, if that were so, and if the venom did lodge at the entry, it would be much more easie to master it. I know also by ma­ny Experiments, that the poison never stays at the place where it enters, but insinuates it self very nimbly into the Veines, to mingle with the blood; especially if the bite hath open'd for it a passage free enough to arrive there. I know, that there it produces after­wards those troublesome accidents, which ensue upon the biting; and that lastly it cau­seth death, if it be not prevented by a quick re­lief. Which clearly shews, that a poison of this nature must needs have dispositions to [Page 71] penetrate, very differing from those that ap­pear in a yellow liquor, that is incapable of all sudden motion and operation.

It would also prove an useless labour, to suck at the place of the biting, in hopes of getting out from thence a Juyce, which could not enter there. And though I do not dis­prove this way of succours on such occasion; yet I know, that all what the sucking can do, is, to fetch out again part of the enraged spi­rits, that had enter'd by the openings of the bite. I know also, that a specifique reme­dy, taken at the mouth, is far better.

I would be in vain, to object unto me the example of the seed of Animals, which, not­withstanding its viscosity, serves daily to propagate that Species which produces it; and that it could in like manner come to pass in the yellow liquor to convey the venom in the biting. For besides that the seed is the purest and most elaborat part which an ani­mal can produce; it is also accompanied with store of Spirits; and there needs, be­sides, the concurrence of many other means as well to introduce and to receive it, as to form and perfect the Foetus: There is more­over necessary an assistance of abundance of spirits from the mothers side; a juyce pro­portionate and proper for its nourishment and [Page 72] increase, and a sufficient time for the same. Whereas the yellow liquor, that can pass for nothing but a juyce excreted out of the Sali­val Glanduls, after it had been sent thither from the brain and the neighbouring parts, and that is destitute of spirits and of all dis­position to act; wants also a passage sufficient to intromit it, and a place proper to lodge in. And if you should grant it an entry, and a place to sojourn in; it must have a much longer time than the seed, of which I was spea­king. But with all this time and all the o­ther circumstances, it would still be incapa­ble of working any thing at all perfect, and perish of it self; without any remarkable production.

If any should say, That this yellow liquor may have spirits proper and proportionate to its nature, and that they are not wanting to make the poison work at the moment of the biting; but that, being drawn out of the ve­sicles, and exposed to the Air, those spirits are dissipated, and thereby render it incapable of all action: I answer, That, without staying upon what I have amply made out of its inno­cence in all kind of uses, Signor Redi himself contradicts it, as I have mentioned above; since he pretends, that the Juyce even of such Vipers as have been dead for several days, & [Page 73] that is dryed to boot, ceaseth not to insinuate its venom without any intervention of spirits, when it is put into wounds. But, besides all that, many Experiments have evinced to me, that death follows the biting without any in­tervention of the yellow liquor, and then when it hath been perfectly wiped away. Moreover, it is well known, that 'tis the na­ture of spirits, to be in motion, to fasten them­selves to, and to follow the parts that have most of them, as for example, the blood. It is also to be noted, that the spirits, that do insinuate the poison, are not of the nature of those that follow the ordinary motion of the blood of the animal; that they do not joyn themselves to it, as those; and that neither of them have any union with the yellow liquor; which is but a meer excrement: But that the Spirits, I speak of, do form themselves in the moment that the Viper conceives the Idea of revenging her self; and they need not the em­barasment of such a dull and viscous juyce, which is not qualified to follow them, nor to pass through the imperceptible pores of the teeth, which the spirits only can penetrate, no more then they can any ways enter through the holes, which the teeth have made. In a word; the nature of a gross, tough and vis­cous juyce is not, to act, penetrate, and be [Page 74] wiftly carried to the most remote parts of the body; but that belongs to spirituous sub­stances, to go and come where gross corpo­rall ones cannot. These are the only spirits, that can subvert the whole Oeconomy of the body; they are they, that disturb the circu­lation of the blood, and that corrupt it; they are they, that stop the natural and animal spi­rits, and hinder them from passing to the parts of the body as they were wont to do; and lastly, 'tis by the let of them, that the death of the Animal usually ensueth the biting.

As to what may be objected, that 'tis very difficult, so exactly to evacuate the yellow li­quor, that there remain none at all; and that it may very well come to pass, that a little of it intervenes in all bitings: I answer, that be­sides that this is also against the opinion of Sign. Redi, and which he hath renounced in his first Assertion; the Salival Glanduls, though many in number, yet are too small and have too little capacity to contain juyce e­nough to furnish for that purpose; and that that cannot be expected but from great ani­mals, that have those Salival glanduls and the other parts far bigger: And though it were possible, they should sufficiently furnish, I do maintain, that the impossibility of intro­mitting that juyce, and its evinced innocence, [Page 75] ought to suffice for confuting this Objection.

Yet this I shall here say in favour of Sign. Redi, That I doubt not but that this yellow liquor, as Salivous and Excrementitious as it is, contains its Volatil Salt, as well as all the other parts of a Viper, and all the parts of Animals, and even all their excrements, and that consequently it is to be reputed spiritu­ous. But then, besides that these spirituous substances are never hurtful, they are yet too intimately mixed and locked in with their matter, and they cannot produce their effects without being separated from it; which can­not be but by a violent heat, and in vessels fit for it. I say therefore, that by art there may be extracted a true Volatil Salt out of this yellow liquor, & even without any addition or mixture of other matter; which may be pro­ved to be of the same nature with that of the other parts of a Viper; and that 'tis so far from being able to work like poison, that t'is very proper and effectual to master all the ill acci­dents, which the bite of a Viper may cause; of which I do accuse the enraged spirits alone. Since therefore Sign. Redi hath dried and laid aside the yellow liquor of two hundred and fifty Vipers, and may easily obtain much more of it; 'tis in his power to extract such a salt out of it, when he pleaseth, to verifie [Page 76] what I was just now saying: And if, to save himself that labour, by reason of his other im­portant occupations, he shall please to send me a competent quantity thereof, I do with all my heart offer my self to prepare it for him, thereby to let him see not only the in­nocence of this juyce, but also the great bene­fit, that is hid in it.

Concerning the Bilious Breath of a Viper, that may be charged to intervene with this yellow liquor, and to envenom it; I am of opinion, that that is nothing but a disguise of the enraged spirits. I assert, That the true Breath of a Viper is ever innocent, how bili­ous soever it be represented; that there is­sues not any ill scent out of her throat, nor out of her guts, nor from the parts made to void the excrements; That Vipers among o­ther marks are in this different from Snakes, that these have their excrements and the parts containing them very fetide and of a smell of stinking Urine; whereas you cannot perceive any ill smell in any part of a Viper; that the Spirits which carry the venom are quite ano­ther thing than the breath coming from the Lungs; that those spirits have no union nor correspondence with the Bilious humour; that they are not formed but at the instant of the irritation; and lastly, that they need no [Page 77] such thing as an excrementitious and useless liquor, pretended to intervene, fit for no­thing but to gard the passage of the place, through which the vexed spirits have en­tred.

But the better to shew the impossibility of the intervention of this breath, and to make it appear, that it never contributes any thing to the poison; you may take notice, that a Vipers head cut off, separate from the Lungs and all communication with the Gall, and in­capable to yield any breath, and deprived even of all that yellow liquor; yet failes not to kill by its biting as long as 'tis alive, if the animal have been provoked; just as would come to pass, if a bite were made by the head of a Viper that is whole and alive, if no remedy were applied.

Touching the Communication, that may also be pretended to be between the bladder of Gall and the yellow liquor, by reason of some resemblance of colour; I say, that, be­sides that my Sentiments in these matters are very conform to those of Sign. Redi; that we have both of us justified the innocence of the juyce contained in the Bladder of Gall; that we have denied, there is any vessel carrying this better juyce into the vesicles of the gums, to make that yellow liquor which is found [Page 78] there: and lastly, that we have unanimously contradicted the errors of the Antients about this pretended channel; besides this; I say, the truth of what we have affirmed is very easie to prove, by tasting the yellow liquor of the Gall, which is very bitter and very sharp, though very innocent, and by comparing it with that of the vesicles of the Gums, which is very flat, though equally innocent. The same may be yet better made out by disse­cting one or more Vipers; where, no more than in Serpents and all other animals, you will never find any vessel, that carries▪ this bile of the Bladder of Gall to the Gums; and you will there see nothing but veins and ar­teries filled With true blood. Of this there will be no doubt, if you please only to taste it; for you will find nothing but the ordina­ry taste of blood. To be yet more assur'd of it, you may taste all that runs out of the body of a Viper when the head is sever'd from her; for you shall find no bitterness at all, nor o­ther tast but that of blood. And besides, ha­ving amply verified, that the yellow liquor comes from the Salival glanduls alone, and having given a very exact description of them; I think it needless to say any more of it, what ever the Antients may have written, or the Moderns may say of that subject.

[Page 79] To come now to the enraged Spirits of a Viper, which I do assure to be the true and only seat of the poison; methinks Sign. Redi hath no reason to oppose my opinion, when I do interess in it the imagination of the Vi­per, or her Idea of revenge, for the formation of those Spirits. I might here alledge what Van Helmont saith in his Chapt. De Tumul [...] Pestis, viz. That not only the Idea and the I­magination of terror are formed in the inward Archeus of the person invaded by the Plague; but that the Toad, which hath, as he saith, a perpetual hatred against man, finding him­self taken, and hanged by one of his hind-legs, and in a condition of dying, conceives an Idea and an imagination of terror by the sight of the man, that often presents himself before his eyes, and whom he looks upon as his capital enemy, and that the same Idea or the same phancy of terror, which the Toad hath conceived by this means, forms in him such impressions and qualities, as are perma­nent even after his death. Then this Author will, that of this body, that dyed in those I­deas of terror, mingled with the parts that have issued thence, and with the wax that shall have received them, you shall make Tro­chesque's, which being taken inwardly, and carried about you, or applied, shall have the [Page 80] virtue of curing as well as preserving from the Plague, by mortifying by their Speci­fique quality the terror which the inward Ar­cheus of the person may have conceived of this evil. Now since this Sentiment of Van Helmont hath found place in the minds of ma­ny men, yery capable to judge of it; who have been thence induced even to make ex­actly that preparation of Toads, which he hath taught in the same Chapter, and which I can assure I have my self made to satisfie the desire of very able Physitians; having also known many persons giving great credit to it, and carrying continually about them of those Trochesques whilst there was talk of the Plague; methinks, that the formation of the enraged spirits, which I ascribe to the Idea and imagination of revenge, conceived by the Viper when she is vexed, is incompa­rably more maintainable, and much easier to be comprehended, as well as the entry of the angred Spirits through the Openings made by the Teeth; because not only these Aper­tures are wont to be deep, but also because the teeth being hollow, serve for a Funnel to intromit those spirits, that accompany the biting, and that produce afterwards in the body bitten those dismal effects of vengeance, which the Viper had conceived when she [Page 81] felt the ill done her; And the letting in of those Spirits through the cavity of those teeth is so much the more easie, because there is also at the end of each great tooth a hole, which, though very small and almost undis­cernable by the eye, may yet be discerned by a Microscope, & hath accordingly been late­ly seen in some publick Assemblies at Paris, in the presence even of persons very affecti­onate to Sign. Redi.

What shall we say of the imagination of Fright and Constraint, that a Toad also im­presses in a Wecsel, which having seen and been seen by that ugly animal, at a certain season of the year, and always in summer, can not avoyd to run a pretty while round about it making a continual shrill noyse, as if she cri­ed for help, whilst the Toad remains move­less with his throat open; and which after a long troublesome motion is constrain'd to come and render her self into that throat. The thing is too well known in divers places of France to doubt of it; and I can assure to have heretofore seen it my self; and that af­ter I had well observ'd and withal wondred at the force of those Idea's, appearing in the a­gitation of the Weesel, and in her being con­strained to fall into the mouth of the Toad, [Page 82] I had the satisfaction to kill the Toad in that moment, and so to save the Weesel, which quickly run away, finding her self de­liver'd by the death of the animal, which was followed by the extinction of those Ideas, that before had had so much power over her. This effect cannot be adscribed to the foam, nor to any material part of the Toad, since the Weesel flyes from him naturally, and falls not into his mouth but in spight of her teeth. Be­sides that the foam of the Toad, which the Weesel failed not to meet with in his throat, can work nothing, seeing the Weesel saved her self immediately after the death of the a­nimal. We therefore must needs seek for the cause of all these effects in the Spi­rits.

More-over, what will Sign. Redi say of a mad dog, which, in the pervertion of all his senses and of all the ordinary functions of his body, breaths after nothing but mis­chief, and makes it his business to reduce into the same miserable condition all men he sees, and even his own master, as well as all animals he can come near and bite? If then the mad Dog hath the power to make pass the same Idea's and the same imagination, which have seized on him, into all the crea­tures [Page 83] that he can come to bite, and into man himself, though of a very different soul and nature from his, by doing no more than with the edge of his teeth to touch the superfice of the skin, and that through his coaths that may retain and wipe off all the foam adhering to the teeth, and lyable to be accused of ha­ving a hand in the mischief; as is very well observ'd by Van Helmont in the same Chap­ter? If, I say, this dog hath the power of communicating his evil to all sorts of animals, from one to another, without a limit, and without excepting any kind; Why should he think it incredible, that a Viper is able by her biting to carry her enraged spirits into the bodies of such men and other animals as she can light upon; That these spirits are capable to kill the animal bitten; and that they effect this by the perturbation and cor­ruption, they introduce into the whole mass of blood; forasmuch as they do manifestly hinder its circulation, and the communicati­on of the natural spirits, that were wont to be conveyed into all the parts? Considering withal, that they do not extend themselves as far as those of the bite of a mad Dog; seeing none of the Animals bitten by a Viper, have any venom diffusible either by their biting, [Page 84] or otherwise, as long as they live, and that they may be safely handled, and even with­out danger eaten after their death.

I say besides, that if it be true, that a man, who hath at all times the same spitle and the same teeth, & who hath them not pointed nor shaped like those of a Viper, is capable to introduce the Gangrene, and to cause death it self by a bite made by him in a rage; where­as another and longer bite, made by the same man not enraged, is not accompanied with any ill accident, and is healed like a simple wound; This being true, I say, we ought to think it neither strange nor impossible, that a Viper, which hath long and piercing teeth, and which shews the force of her being vex­ed by the nimbleness of her biting, should be able, by biting when enraged, to make animals feel the mortal effects of her vexed spirits.

What shall we say of the pricking of a Ta­rantula how slight soever? shall we declare it to be exempt from the idea and imagination of this little animal, since it impresses it so strongly and differently upon persons that have been pricked therewith, insomuch that it perverts in part the senses and spirits, conforms them to his stirring and skipping [Page 85] nature, and constrains them at certain and set times to continual dancing for several days, and which having left a contumacious leaven of the same idea's, faileth not to pro­duce the same effects every year, and, if you may believe Authors, as long as the Tarantula liveth, and until the same idea's be extinct by its death. And though I doubt not but that Sign. Redi hath seen very many examples of persons pricked by Tarantula's, there be­ing store of them in Italy; yet I shall not for­bear here to recite that of a Neapolitan Soul­dier, who hath been these four years among the French infantry. This Souldier, whom his Camarads call'd Tarante, because he had been pricked by a Tarantula, is still to this very day in the Royal Regiment of Roussillon. He never failed to feel every year at a deter­minate time (viz. about the 24 th of July) the effects of that sting, which he had receiv'd before he came into France. He was always sure of the time about two or three days near it. And when the ideas of the sting were found exalted to a degree capable to pro­duce their effects, he began to dance, and desired to hear without interruption the Vio­lins, which the Officers of that Regiment cau­sed to be play'd for him out of charity; to [Page 86] which he answer'd continually, keeping time very well, without being tired, for three days, eating and drinking, without interrup­tion of his dance; and being very impatient of any discontinuance of the play of the Vio­lins, and that the more, if the intermission was any thing long; for then he became alto­gether livid, and fell into grievous swound­ings. He pleased himself whilst he danced, to have in his hands several naked swords, one after another; to see about him many Looking-glasses, to behold himself in them dancing; to be environed with much people, and, that he might hinder them from going away, to take from them their Gloves, Rib­bons, and such other things; being very care­ful to keep all he had taken from them unto the fourth day, which being come, his ea­gerness to dance abated, and at length quite ceased; he remembring all he had done, and knowing all that were about him, to every one of whom he rendred very exactly and without any mistake all he had taken from them, though he had to do with a thousand people. After which time, he pass'd the re­mainder of that year, and the whole interval of his Paroxysines without any inclination to dance. He was naturally melancholick, [Page 87] in appearance of no great parts, neither had he learn'd to dance. He hath been seen thus dancing every year by thousands of people, and particularly in the Camp Royal Anno 1670. where the King himself and the whole Court saw him. And this hath been so be­neficial to him, that the ordinary time is past this year without any assault of this evil, which he had great apprehensions of, finding himself at that time engaged in a march, and fearing he should want Violins at the time that the sit should take him.

Now since the pricking of this Animal, though very small, and in a manner like that of a small fly, being made even thorough stockings or cloaths, is able to act equally upon the body and the mind of the person stung; as leaving behind such long and strong impressions, and causing such irksome returns; To what can we adscribe all those different effects, if it be not to the idea or i­magination of the animal stinging, or of the person stung. 'Tis needless, to alledge here the effects of the idea or imagination of Women with Child, nor of that of Jacob's Sheep. I think I have said enough to justi­fie the possibility of the idea or imaginati­on of a Vipers revengefulness, for the for­ming [Page 88] of angry spirits, sufficient to impute unto them all the venom, and to exclude from it the yellow liquor.

After this, Sign. Redi must not wonder, if I, who make profession of Chymistry, (of which I have the honour to read publick Le­ctures in the Garden Royal) who doe every day exercise my self in separating the spiri­tuous parts from the gross ones in mixt ina­nimat bodies; and who have not been able to find in any corporeal and sensible matter the true cause of the strange and suddain pro­ductions, observed in the biting of a live Viper; If I, after all this, I say, have thought my self obliged to seek for it in the Spirits; if having found it there, I have abandon'd his party, and communicated to the publick the discovery I have made.

Yet I am not over-much surprised, that Sign, Redi, being in this matter prepossess'd by corporeal gross things, still persists in his sentiment, since in the preparations, that do altogether depend of my profession, and which I ought to know well, he rejects spi­rituous substances, which he relishes not, sticking only to the more material, which are the least, and in very small quantity; which doth not keep him from believing [Page 89] them to be the best. You may see, what he writeth of it about the end of pag. 76. and at the beginning of pag. 77, of his first Letter of Observations, in these words.

In queste nuè naturali Osservationi ho con­suinato gran quantitá, &c.That is, In these my natural Observations I have spent a great quantity of Vipers, making of them daily a ve­ry great slaughter; and, to extract the subtile from the subtil (ifI may so speak) I always laid aside and kept all their flesh and bones, which being dryed in a Furnace, and afterwards by a quick fire with long and great labour burnt and reduced to ashes, I thence drew the Salt with Fountain-water, and purified it, and reduced it into a kind of Chrystal, &c.

Those that know all the parts of which the body of a Viper is composed, will cer­tainly wonder, that a person so judicious and knowing hath not found, that the chief and best part of a Viper consists in its vola­til Salt, and that that Salt would not fail to avolate and to be wasted by that preparation or rather destruction, which Sign. Redi hath used to extract the Salt of Vipers. They will quickly see, that when he would draw the subtil from the subtil (as he speaks) he did [Page 90] quite the contrary, and expelled and dissi­pated the volatil and better parts, re­turning only the gross, the fixed and the least. They will soon judg, that he should not have given himself all that labour and pain, which he saith he hath taken, to succeed so ill in his work; and that he had done much better, with silence to pass over his process, then to publish it. The way, by him taken, will be found, I think, received from the An­tients, who knew not, that all Animals a­bound in Volatil, and have little of Fixed Salt: And his preparation, which is very easie, would have pleased better in those times, especially in Italy, then that great and laborious Preparation of the Salt of Vipers, which was made with so great an Apparatus, and of which I have already given my thoughts, when I discoursed of the Remedies drawn from Vipers.

I also foresee, that Sign. Redi will not re­ceive any greater advantage by striving to at­tribute to himself the first discovery of the Salival glanduls, which I found on both the Temples of both Male and Female Vipers, and which I have described and delineated in my Anatomy of Vipers: For, he will not be able to perswade it to those, who shall [Page 91] see pag. 44. of his first Letter of Observations the discourse following;

Se non stimassi vergogna scriver senza al­tra riprova, &c.That is, If I did not think it a shame, to write, without other proof, what came into my phancy, I might say perhaps, that that yellow liquor is by no other way intromit­ted into the above said gums of the teeth but by thoseSalival Conduits, found out by the fa­mousThomas Wharton, and shewn in this Court by Lorenzo Billini, a learned young man and of great expectation, in other Animals be­sides Man, and particularly in Staggs, and Wood-peckers: Moreover that under those Gums there are two small Glanduls, found by me in all Vipers. Yet I would not have you rely upon this thought of mine, because it may prove a Chimera, as I believe it to be one,&c.

I cannot comprehend, how Sign. Redi, after he hath spoken of the Salival Conduits as of a thing that came into his phancy, and by a perhaps, that is to say, not knowing it; and who declareth, that he was asham'd to write of a thing without verifying it; who exhorts his friend to whom he writes, not to relye on his thoughts, and who adds, that it may prove a Chimera; I know not, I say, [Page 92] how, after he hath written all this, he can pretend to be the inventor of the Salival Glanduls, and their Pipes: For pag. 55 and 56. of his first Letter speaking of the yellow liquor, he adds,

E questo veleno altro non è, &c. That is, This venom is nothing else but that liquor, which humects the Palat, and stagnates in those gums that invest the teeth, not transmitted thither from the Bladder of Gall, but bred in the whole head, and conveyed perhaps to the gums by some Salival conduits, which perhaps are there inserted.

Where the word perhaps, yet twice again repeated, doth sufficiently shew, that Sign. Redi did speak of the Salival conduits no o­therwise than as of a thing he was not at all assured of. And though he may say, that he hath had thoughts of it sooner than I, (who have not medled with Vipers but some years after his first Letter,) that what he had written of it gave me from that time occasi­on and a desire to seek for those Pipes and the Glanduls that might convey thither the yellow liquor; that the belief, he had of the Generation of this juyce in the whole head, induced me to search for the Salival Glanduls higher and farther off than the place under the [Page 93] bottom of the vesicles; and that I doubt not, that himself might have found these true Glanduls, if he would have taken pains for it. I answer, that, since he hath not done it, he ought not to be offended at my having labour'd for him, and succeeded in so doing: Neither hath he any right to deny, that I have first found, described, and to the life represented the two heaps of Salival Glan­duls of a Viper with all their Vessels, as well for forming, as conveying the yellow li­quor into the Vesicles that cover the great teeth.

As to what Sign. Redi saith of me, speak­ing of the Authors of my Book, that I have changed the words, under the bottom, into those, at the bottom of the vesicles of the gums, and there sought in vain for the two small Glanduls, which he assures to have found there in all Vipers: I answer, that whilst he is critical as to the letter of the words, I keep to the truth of the matter of fact: And I can assure, to have searched with much care, not only in the whole bottom of the vesicles, but every where under the bottom of them, but have not found any, whether great or small Glanduls, nor any thing of the colour of a Glandul, nor that came any way near to their form.

[Page 94] I put it then for a truth, that there is not to be found any Glandul neither in nor under the bottom of the vesicles, and that under the bottom there is nothing but the gristly bone that gives the shape to the nose of a Viper; the two sharp ends of the two advanced bones of the skull, to which the two great teeth are firmly annexed; the conduit of the smell, that of the hearing; some small vein, some little Artery, some little Nerve, the extremity of a Muscle, and the two ends of the Salival Channels that discharge into the vesicles; as you may see it in a manner de­scribed in the Anatomy made of it by me.

After this, Signor Redi himself shews, that it was impossible, there should be Glan­duls under the bottom of the vesicles, since he saith, pag. 38. of his last Letter.

Ne io poteva mai scrivere, &c. that is, Nor could I at all write, that those Glanduls lay in the bottom of the vesicles, if I was of opinion, that the yellow liquor did run into them after it had passed through the Salival conduits, which yet I imagined might have their Origin from or connexion with those two Glanduls seen by me, and therefore must needs be in a scituation a little distant from the vesicles, and not in the bottom of them.

[Page 95] For since he saith, to have meant, that the yellow juyce took its course thorough the Salival conduits before its coming into the vesicles; He cannot find a way long enough, nor a distance great enough, for the need of long conduits, from the place under the bot­tom unto that which is in the bottom of the vesicles: For, there would have needed no­thing but a little opening in the same bottom, to receive the juyce issuing out of the two little Glanduls he hath spoken of. And he shews sufficiently, that he cannot maintain those two small Glanduls under the bottom, where he would have them to be, since now he will needs have them a little distant from the vesicles, that he may find, in the intervall, a space sufficient for the vessels that are neces­sary to the course of this yellow liquor. Be­sides, that it is altogether impossible for two small Glanduls to furnish all that yellow li­quor, which presents it self in the vesicles; since the two great heaps by me found in the two Temples and behind the Orbits of the eyes of a Viper, can hardly furnish each a­bout a drop in the space of 24 hours, after the vesicles have been well voided. More­over, it is very easie to judge by what Sign. Redi saith in his First Letter, that he under­stood not, the Salival Glands were seated, as [Page 96] they are, on the two Temples, nor so near the skull; since he saith, that what came into his phancy, was, that the head of a Viper did not convey that yellow juyce but by certain sali­val conduits. For if he had been of another mind, he would not have spoken but of glands; or, at least, he would have begun with them before he had spoken of the conduits, which shews also sufficiently, that by this means he hath as 'twere inverted the order of nature: For, instead of placing the Glands close to the skul, and afterwards the salival conduits; he hath begun with these, and would have them immediately to receive the juyce of the Brain, and to carry them to the vesicles of the gums; and that his two pretended glanduls are seated between the extremity of these conduits, and the bottom of the vesicles; though none be there, and it would be altoge­ther useless, they should be there, because there are none but they that can at the begin­ning suck & digest the humidities of the brain and the neighbouring parts, and send them into the vesicles of the gums by the conduits appointed for this office.

But when Sign. Redi accuses me of having taken the bottom of the vesicles for that which is under the bottom of them, and of not having rightly understood, as he speaks, [Page 97] the Toscan tongue; I may say, that himself hath not very well apprehended, nor duly explained the French terms, used by me; since he saith at the end of pag. 35. and at the beginning of p. 36. of the same last letter.

Sovra de chi gli, Autori delle novelle experi­ence affermano, &c. That is, Whereupon the Authors of the New Experiments do affirm, that they could never see such Glanduls as I had named; but that instead of them they had found two others, which they call Salival, thus by them described, p. 31.

For neither in all that he hath afterwards taken the pains to transcribe out of my book on that subject, nor in all the rest of my Secti­on upon the Salival Glanduls, he can have read; that I say to have found two Glanduls, but, Glanduls; there being a great difference in good French, between Deux Glandes, and Des Glandes, two Glands, and, Glands. And when, describing the Glanduls, I say, that they are seated on the two sides of the Cra­niuns, I say afterwards, that there are many small ones joyned together, which may be call'd Conglomerate Glanduls. And yet more; I speak of an Heap of Glanduls; so far am I from speaking only of one or two Glanduls, as Sign. Redi hath represented me to have done.

And since, in hopes of better maintaining [Page 98] his cause, he hath given himself the trouble of copying word for word, in his last Letter, only the most general place of my Book, and that which was the least contrary to it, in my Section of the Salival Glands. To shew there­fore on my part, that the Glands, found by me, are very different, and that even they are quite another thing, than the two small ones spoken of by him; I thought my self obli­ged to transcribe hither out of my book what he thought not necessary for him. For in the same Section, p. 30. (in the English ver­sion, p. 33) I speak thus of the salival Glands.

These Glands are found in all the heads of Vi­pers, both Males and Females; they are seated on both sides, and joining to the skull, in the hind-part of each round of the eyes, and at the same height with them. There are many small ones joined together, which may be call'dCon­glomerate Glands, that are easily distinguisha­ble by their form and colour, which is different from the Muscles, neighbouring to them, and of which there is one, that may be call'dTemporal, which in part covers them by its extremity. This heap of Glands appears there of the bigness of the neighbouring eye, and extending it self in length, continues its progress in the Orbite of the eye, below and in part behind the eye. Each Gland hath its little Lymphatique vessel, [Page 99] which parts from it as from a little Teat, and goes disgorging it self into a greater vessel, that runs all along and under these Glands, and pas­seth into the Vesicle of the Gum, and terminates in the midst of the Articulation, which the root of the great teeth makes with the advancing cor­ner of the said Orbite, and with the little Bone, which by its other end is articulated in the mid­dle of the upper jaw. This principal vessel, which being consider'd alone, is very little in appear­ance, but is not so in effect, seeing it receives the discharge of all the small vessels that come from each Gland, empties it self into the bag of the gums, and carries thither thatSalival juyce, which may have qualities approaching to those of the Saliva or Spitle of man, or of the foam or drivel of divers other Animals.

The Nerve, which serves in the Nostrils to the faculty of Hearing, runs for some space along these Glands, which are also, as I have already said, small Veins and Arte­ries.

But having well consider'd the substance, qua­lity & scituation of theseGlands, we judged their formation not to be in vain; but that their Use, in all likelyhood, was, to receive the humidities both of the Brain, the Eyes, and the neighbouring parts; and that their dis­charge was very convenient, and even very [Page 100] necessary to the parts, which receive that li­quor; as well for moistening the ligaments of the great teeth, and to keep them in a condition of bending at such time when the Viper will bite, as for bedewing and increa­sing the teeth, which Nature hath formed and set in the midst of this Juice.

For the rest, examining and tasting the Glands as well as the Juice, we found a taste altogether like that of the Gums, which Sign. Redi hath described; namely, very near the taste of the Oyle of Almonds, with­out all bitterness, though it leave, a while after, a little acrimony in the mouth, such as may be discern'd in all kind of Spi­tle.

I could add here, what I said of the Salival Glands of Snakes, their difference from those of Vipers; and I could al­ledge, that I believe my self to be like­wise the first Discoverer of them. But because so prolix a Citation might prove tedious, and that those that desire to have more light therein, may easily find the rest in the above-cited Section of my Book, I shall not transcribe it hither.

Mean time 'tis very easie to judge from my whole Discourse, and from the exact Description, made by me, of these Glands, [Page 101] and their neighbouring parts, that they were not known to me by Phancy. Their scituation very distant from that place under, and even from the sides of, the bottom of the vesicles of the gums, shews sufficiently, that they are neither in nor under the bottom of those vesicles, as Sign. Redi hath pretended; and their great number makes it appear, that 'tis quite a­nother thing, than the two litle Glanduls he speaks of, and which are not to be found neither.

I intreat the Reader, well to consider those I have discover'd, as they are re­presented in my third Cutt, as well in that part where the Temples are of a Head cut, mark'd C, (where their shape and scitua­tion is represented to the life, as they shew themselves before they are sever'd;) as in the inclosure of a Vipers sceleton, which is there also exhibited; where he may see them in their upper and lower appearance, drawn out of the Head, and by their ligaments fastned to the hind-part of the Eyes, and to the body of the Brain. I came not to the full knowledge of them till after much pains, and a very long and particular search. I did not content my self to seek a great while in the bottom, [Page 102] and under the bottom of the vesicles of the gums; but, to find these Glands, I have flead and dissected a great number of Vi­pers heads, as dextrously and nicely as I could; and I have used all means well to examine them; among others, I caused ma­ny heads to be gently boyled in a little water, as well to consider the divers su­tures of the skull, and to separate all the parts from it; as to remark well the form and the connexion of these Glands, to draw them out whole, and joined, as they are, to the Eyes, and to divers bodies of the Brain, to which the marrow of the Spaine is annex'd; and to have all these parts en­tire, and such as I have caused them to be engraven.

Me thinks, that all these cares, follow'd by so good success, may well deserve, my Discovery of this great number of Salival Glands with all their vessels, should not be envied me by Sign. Redi; considering I do sufficiently appear to him incapable of envying him any of those sine things, he hath already found, or may find hereafter in his curious re-searches.

There remains no more for me to do, me thinks, than to satisfie Sign. Redi as well concerning the Uncertainty, wherein he is [Page 103] touching the Power of the Volatil Salt of Vipers for the curing of their bitings; as about the Objections, by him made against my Experiments of the Head and Neck of a Viper, for curing Doggs bitten by it, and which I have also thought should be effica­cious to cure men in the like case.

He opposes nothing to the Vertue of this Volatil Salt, but that he remits the Reader to the time he will take, Chymically to prepare this Salt, and to make the Expe­riment therewith. But he saith, that he hath made many tryals with the Heads and Necks of Vipers, and found first; That, having made two great Doggs aforehand to swallow, each the head and neck of a Vi­per, and, afterwards caused both of them to be bitten by other Vipers, those Doggs dyed not: And that, having caused to be bitten two other Doggs of the same big­ness, that had eaten neither head nor neck of a Viper, they dyed neither. He saith further, that having made a Pullet to swal­low one head of a Viper, and a Capon two, and caused them to be bitten, they both dy­ed soon after. He adds, that having the next day made ready some heads of Vipers, he caused them to be forc'd down the throat of two little Doggs, of which he caused [Page 104] the least to be bitten in the legg near the anus, and the other, in the tongue, and that they both dyed; That he made the same Experiment upon eight Pullets, two Kitlings, two small Rabbets, and six Pige­ons, even with rubbing the place bitten with the blood of the Viper; That also the six Pigeons were bitten by the heads of Vipers, dead several dayes before, and that all these animals dyed; That lastly, he had fed two Pigeons for there dayes with the flesh and broath of Vipers, and being bit­ten thereupon, they dyed likewise, this aid notwithstanding.

For Answer to all these Experiments, I make use of the same Generals, that Sign. Redi hath done against mine, which are to be found pag. 16. of his last Letter; where he saith: That a Viper more easily kills les­ser Animals by his biting, than great ones; that, according to the bigness of the Ani­mal bitten, and according as the place wounded is more or less provided with veins or arteries; that, if from the wound of a Viper much blood issueth, the Ani­mal not only dyeth not, but does not so much as feel any great inconvenience; that it also falls out sometimes, that the Animal bitten escapeth, after it hath endured ma­ny [Page 105] mortal symptoms; and that this may come to pass by the sole assistance of Nature.

As to the two other Generals, which he alledgeth in reference to the letting in of the yellow liquor; I did not think fit to alledge them here, both because I agree not as to the possibility of the fact, and that I have else­where declared my self sufficiently about it; as also that they make not to this purpose. But I think it more material, to add here two other Generals to those of Sign. Redi, and to say: That the biting is more or less noxious, not only according to the place bitten, but according to the degree of the Vipers being vexed when she is to bite, and according as her teeth have more or less pe­netrated. And reasoning particularly upon these experiments, I say, that the dogs which I had caused to be bitten every one thrice, & were cured by making each of them swallow the head and neck of a Viper, were of a very midling size, that it is very difficult to found a certainjudgment upon the great ones, which Sign. Redi hath used, as 'tis also, to pass it upon them that had swallow'd the head and neck of a Viper, and those, that had not done so, that all the other little animals, which he employed, as well the Pullet and the Capon, as the Pigeons, Catlings, Puppies, and little [Page 106] Rabbets, had not of themselves strength e­nough to resist for a time the enraged spirits, nor to find the effect of the remedy; especial­ly that which was bitten in the tongue. For, I firmly believe, that there is no animal, great or smal, which being fiercely bit in the tongue by a Viper well vexed, can avoid death, what aid soever you minister to it, because of the nerves, veins & arteries, disseminated through the tongue; and because that the angred spirits finding a free entrance, produce there all the effect they are capable of, with so much vio­lence and nimbleness, that nothing is able to stop them. But in all curable bites I shall not easily be induced to renounce the help, which may be given by the head, neck, heart, liver, and divers other parts of a Viper (especially of her that made the bite) for the cure of the animals that have sufficient strength to resist a while, and to expect the benefit of this kind of remedy. I believe also to have great cause not to exclude from it man himself; as also to prefer the parts of the same Viper that hath bitten, to those of others; because they must needs have greater cognation and more con­sent with the vexed spirits, that issued from her. Concerning which I think it not amiss, to impart to the publick an accident that hapn'd in the Royal Laboratory of this City, whilst my last experiments were making.

[Page 107] A young man that had made a good progress in his studies, desirous to perfect himself in both ways of Pharmacy, and chiefly addicted to my course of Chymistry, was near me, in the midst of a great Assembly, on the 2 d day of my experiments. After I had made some, whilst I was entertaining the company, the fancy took him, in imitation of me, yet without my knowledge, to take a Viper with his hand, and to seize on her head: which he did not with that caution that is necessary, as not holding her so fast but that the Viper took her oppor­tunity, and struck one of her great teeth very deep into the middle of the upper part of his left fore-finger. Having been made acquainted therewith, I remov'd, as much as I could, all fear from his spirit, and advised him to betake himself to the necessary remedies. The credit he gave to the truths contain'd in my book, of­ten read by him, induced him to say, that if I thought well of it, he would eat the head and neck of the Viper that had bit him. Com­mending his courage, I seconded his good in­clinations; for, I caused slightly to be broil­ed on coals the head and neck of the said vi­per, and made him eat and swallow it hot, in the midst of the company, adding to it the heart and liver broiled likewise. After which I said, I doubted not but what he had done would be sufficient to cure him; yet to be the [Page 108] surer, I would give him some volatil salt of vi­pers, especially he being a person whom I did much esteem, and for whose health I had and ever should haue a great concern. I thereupon immediately gave him a dose a fifty grains of this volatil salt, dissolved in four ounces of water, and assured him there was not any dan­ger after this. The young man remained in the midst of the company, & stirr'd not from the place, till the meeting ended, and then he took a little fresh air. He was afterwards a couple of hours in the Royal Garden and the Labora­tory; during which time he now & then found some little sickness about his heart; but being come to his own lodging, he was ready to sup as he was used to do, and would have done it, if I had not thought it better for him to take another dose of the same volatil salt, which had so good effect, that the next day, after he had dined well, he came again to our meeting; which did much surprise all those that had been witnesses of the bite. Since that time he hath ever been very well. Now though his wound appear'd much deeper then that of the German gentleman, that was bitten the 1 st day of my former experiments; yet had he none of those grievous accidents, that befell him, & were by me described in my book: for he had no other pain but that of the hole of the bite, nor had he so much as a Fever. The wound [Page 109] only rendred some drops of blood, by means of the ligature, I caus'd to be made on the top of his wounded finger, which did never swell, and heal'd up as if it had been made by the prick of a pin, without any Cicatrice appear­ing; so far was it from a Gangrene, or Scar, as some fancied he would have.

The thing hath been too publick, not to be credited every where; and I think not, that Sign, Redi himself will doubt of it; but rather that all things have concurr'd together to ve­rifie all I had advanced in my book, of which he hath contested some particulars, and could not resolve himself about others. However, if he have by him any remedies, more quick and more sure for the cure of the bites of Vi­pers, the publick will be much oblig'd to him when he shall please to impart them, as I very willingly communicate these I have experi­mented. I shall not speak here of divers Ex­periments lately made upon Vipers by very able persons at Paris, which confirm not on­ly the perfect innocence of the jellow liquor that is in the vesicles of the Gums, but which warrant at the same time my adscribing the venom to the enraged spirits. These truths will be better received from their hands, and they will be much more advantagious to me, than if I did attempt to publish them now. For doubtless there will be found in them ve­ry [Page 110] curious things, and they are like to be of more importance than what I might be able to say of them. Besides that I am far from u­surping the honor due to others, and from at­tributing to me the obligation, which the publick will owe them for it.

For a conclusion of this discourse; since Sign. Redi hath not found in the whole body of a Viper any other part but the jellow juice to which he can assign its venom; since on my part by the new experiments, he hath desir'd of me, I have sufficiently justified the inno­cence of the jellow liquor in the Vipers of France, and the great conformities, there must needs be in the same with that of the Vipers of Italy, asserting withal the venomonsness of the angred spirits causing the death that ensu­eth the bite; and since lastly the Vipers of France do kill as soon and in the same manner as those of Italy do, and even without any in­tervention of the jellow liquor: These things being so, I esteem, that Sign. Redi would do very well, if, to satisfie on his part the expectation of the publick, and without adhering any longer to the jellow liquor, which is so reasonably contested, he would take the pains to labour to find out some new subject, that might be common to the Vipers of France and those of Italy; that might have the same disposition of matter, and the same [Page 111] power of acting nimbly; and that might with rea­son be equally declared the true seat of their ve­nom; to the end that afterwards he might as ju­stly exclude from it the enraged spirits, as I now exclude from it the jellow liquor. But if on the contrary it comes to pass, that he can find none other, I believe not, that for the future he hath any ground to maintain his opinion, no more than to contest mine.

Concluding this dissertation I shall say, that the contrariety of opinions, which is between Sign. Redi and me, in the most essential things of the Vipers poison, may also be observed up­on another account about the same animal: For, the more he expresseth p. 39. of his last letter, the aversion and hatred he hath against it, the more I esteem it, and the greater pleasure I take to han­dle, to examine, and to prepare it. Nor can I suf­ficiently praise the excellent qualities, which so rare a subject possesseth, nor the admirable reme­dies which it furnisheth: Which are the conside­rations, that have heretofore induced me, and oblige me still to call the Viper one of the chief Pillars of Physick.

It may be, that for this once Sign. Redi will not doubt but that a discourse as rude as this, compos'd among coals and furnaces, which I have seldom quitted of late, is mine. He will doubtless judge, that, if more understanding men had put their hands to it, the reasonings thereof [Page 112] would be more subtile, the style more polite, and the expressions more elegant; and the Greek and Latin quotations would not have been spa­red therein, both to strengthen the arguments thereof, and to adorn & enlarge the volume. But for all the contrarieties, which the different con­ceptions have bred between Sign. Redi and me, I shall always have a very great and a very dis­interress'd esteem for him; and so much the more, because I have great reason to conceive some good opinion of my book, since it could deserve that so intelligent & famous a person hath vouch­safed to read it again and again with pleasure, as he saith himself, that he hath taken the pains of transcribing many pages out of it word for word, and hath made it famous by his answer, and by that also which a person of great parts, and a high reputation hath made to it, address'd to him­self on this subject. I cannot but much glory in it, and highly declare my self his obliged. And if it should come to pass, that the diversity of his experiments, the force of his arguments, or the esteem he hath acquired among the Learned, should carry the bell from me in the spirits of all the world; the victory, which he should thence obtain, would not be much less advantagious for me, then if the truth of my experiments, accom­panied by my reasonings, had been able to bal­lance or even to prevail over his Sentiments and the writings of so Illustrious a Person.