The Sun.
London, England, 1846-04-17 00:00:00

The salamander is a lizard without scales, the skin o',
which, speckled with yellow, exhales a fluid which soul(
persons have regarded as poisonous. This tact need,
confirmation ; yet it does not seem destitute of foun-
dation.

The toad, that degenerated species of frog, which is
found in ruins and miry places, exudes from its whole
holy, in the same manner as the salamander, a viscous
fluid ; but this is not its true poison. All country peo-
p e are well aware that when pursued the toad ejaculate,
an acid and corrosive liquid as if to obstruct its persecu-
tors. The Rtisonous quality of this liquid has been
efen questioned by writ.-rs who have never observed its
eff .cts ; but there are so many evidences as to the truth
of this assertion that it would be presumptuous not to
admit it as a demon-!rated fact. Matthiolus attributes
to the poison of toads the sudden death of persons whe
have eaten of strawberries,-mushrooms, or other legumes
which the toad has besmeared with its venom. .A.nabrost
Pare cites, among other facts, a case of poisoning proved
beltre the legal tribunals, and which had been produced
by pieces of sage over which a toad must have passed.
According to Christopher Franc Paulini, a man, while
throwing stones at a large toad, took hold of one which
the reptile had polluted with its venom. His hand swelled
up from the violence of the pain ; it became covered with
phlyetwnm and visicles tilled with an ichorous sani, s
the inflammation extended up the arm, and gave him
the most acute torture for 14 days. At the end of the
rhr,,e years, and 'on the exact anniversa y of the day
on which he pursued the toad, the dis<as, returnee
With all its original symptoms, and the ti an was cured
on'y after considerable difficulty. Lo4lvvi nh iek speaks
of an am teur angler, who, being in the habi of haitieg
his hook e ith frogs and toad . one day rec-ivel the flu d ejaculated by one of these batracii t p .0 the surface of
Ills eye, and in consecrienee was attaekt d with acute
ophthalmia. He speaks also of a dog which could tot
catch a toad without afterwards falling
hilehmyisiellafvehapvuersoufewdn;
into paroxysms
ejaculated
ni;lyn]toad,,dn; ssw.
seenthe sat rfle au Cid]
was thrown out to a distance of 80 centimetres,
it was
of a greenish colour and reqlseous odour; but I had
nothing at hand to experiment upon these animals. And
everi_had we not so many evidences in mu:port of it,
rature,. analogy alone would point .out to us that this
liquid, ejaculated as a means of defence, trust be of a
natare similar to that which the riper introduces for the
same object into the flesh of its aggressor.
We must then admit that this venom has a great share
in the production of those cases or poisoning a hich seem
to depend on some doubtful cause, and which arise after
having eaten without precaution fruits or creeping vege-
tables, ind even mushrooms, which, from their g 4 nerd
characters. would be classed am,tng the most inoffeasive
species. How many accidents which could not be traced
to any certain cause might perhaps be ref.-rred to,ke
this
kind of infection! How many peop'ev who have
gavewta'aei
up and stupfied from the sleep
theythat
on the grass, have probably hen indebted for their illness to this species of accident!

THE PROTECTION PEERS.—We are informed, on au•
thority which cannot be doubted, that "the die is cast."
The monopolist peers have had their meetings, One after
another, and the issue is, that the march of free trade is to
b. resisted to the uttermost. Lord Stanley, never deficient in
animal courage, and always forward when mischief is to be
done, has undertaken so to mutilate and mangle the Minis-
terial measure in committee that it will be quite impossible
for the free trade party in the House of Commons to accept
it when it is returned to them. Our regret, we confess, is
greater than our surprise at this information. Their Lord-
ships have always been tardy learners in the school of wis-
dom, and. therefore, we may not wonder at their preserving
this characteristic of their order in the present instance.
And what sve they to gala by playing this dangerous game
with an irritated and envy people ? Or, rather, hat may
they not lose by their appalling folly ? But, while such is
the present. intention of the Lords, Sir R. Peel, we are as-
sured, is resolute and determined on the subject. He has
made up his mind that he will take no measure but his own.
It is aut exsar aut nail with him. He will have all or none.
The monopolists must be prepared to form an Administration
or face a dissolution of Parliament in the very hour when
they give a mortal stab to his proposition. So stands the •
case at present. We speak on the authority of one engaged I
in playing the game himself..-•-. Liverpool Albion.
TIIE PIN l'itatiE.—There- i, much talk amongst
scientific person-, and those to whom t he welfare of our home
in apufactures is of interest, respecting the improvements
recently made in pin making—invrovements which have
already caused preparations for closii g many large works
.upon the continent. The machinery by.which the new pin,
to which Mr. Kirby, of Newgate-street, the holder of the
patent, has given the name of the Regina, is mad; is of the
most extraordinary character. Strings of wire enter it upon
the one side by thousamls, and almost immediately appear at
the other as pins of the most perfect form, literally beaded
and pointed to a degree of perfection defying microscopic
power to detect a fault in shape or finish. The sticking of
the pins into paper is likewise completed by the same
,iniehinerv, in tis incredible a regular and rapid order, and it
is a gratifying fact, that although the latter operation is a t-
ptished by this invention, great deniami caused by t
coin the
e•Jormouti reduction in the price of tne itece,a,rity cars
together three times the iluinber of female assistants fur their
preparation and "snaking up," &c., at more remtmtrative
wages than by the old syatein.

•
SERPENTS.
(From a New York ; aper.)
We consoler tie following views by M. Rasptiil to pos-
sess much scientific as well as popular interest. Ser-
pents are divided into two grand classes, of which the
one Mite without poisoning the wound, while the others
have a venomous bite. The adder, the boa, Rec., belong
to the first list ; the viper, the rattlesnake, Sec., are in
the second ; and these species, fearful from the accidents
consecutive to their bite, owe this property to two teeth
of the upper jaw, which are moveable, of a creoki d
figure. and p-rferated by a canal, which communieates
with a glandular reservoir, in which the poison is elabo-
rated. When the animal c'ssi4es its jaws, these two teeth
lie flat against the palate ; when, en the contrary, the
animal opens its mouth, these teeth standing upright
again, and the platy of the *males, by compressing the
secreting organ of the poison, causes the liquid to pass
into the dental canal, which thus deposits it in the
wound. In the adder, and other non-venomous serpents,
this apparatus is replaced by a second row of common
teeth. Still, as there is nothing abrupt in nature, it is
very possible that we may meet with intermediate states
between these tele forms. and which thus tend only to
confuse and embarrass cles.ifications. We have no
direct experience to show that those various influences
which preside over the specific transformatscei or cross-
ing of the animal races may not clothe the one of these
species with the character of the other, or, at least, pro-
duce a modification in the forms of both.
Venemous serpents acquire a greater virulence ac-
cording to the elevation of the temperature. The viper
of our climate is much more dangerous in the height of
summer than at the commeecement of spring, in gravelly
and arid plains than in shady positions ; the rattlesnake
of the Indies is mere yeeenions than the viper of the
north of Europe. The irritation of the animal mar
render the wound more dangerous by infiltrating th'e
poison more deeply into our tissues ; it is under such
circumstances that the viper, biting twice, and thus leav-
ing four traces of its gripe, has led some ancient authors
to believe that the females have four venemous teeth and
the males only two e the female serpents, in fact, at the
period of leaving their eggs, -or of incubation, are more
irritable than the males.
The ancients were perfectly aw ,re that the peison of
the viper, so subtle when introduced by puncture, is in-
offensive in the stomach ; they wee-, in the habit of in-
troducing the viper, frequently the head as well as the
tail, as an ingredient in their elect caries. But it is espe-
cially by the experiments of Redi Feintana and Charms
that this previously popular belief has been rightly de-
monstrated. There are many other substances which
we digest with impunity, but which become so many
causes of poisoning if infiltrated into the blood by means
et' a puneturil: is not pus, even %hen of good character,
to be reek n d among this class ?
In the various svesptoms of this kind of poisoning, as
well as in the means which serve as its antidotes, every-
thing seems to indicate that the poison ofsthe viper acts
by an acid p'operry, and by ceagulating, atter the
manner of acids, the albumen of the blood ; for since
the time of Fontana it is generally admitted that the
best of antidotes is ammonia, applied externally as well
as taken internally. The whole becomes swollen, red,
and ecchymosed. Sometimes it is surrounded with
anall vesicles of watery bladders ; every part brcomes
congested—the head, the longs, the abdomen, the limbs,
the face ; vertigo and stupor take place, to he shortly
f llowed by delirium and camas The pulse falls ; the
circulation, at first irregular, grows weaker oil weaker,
eir at every point it meets with an interruption from the
coagulation of the blood. I. is a frigid poison ; the
paralysed stomach rejects the nutriment. which acts upon
it as a dead weight. The patient commences to vomit,
but falls off into a state of (Laing :his agony is a mortal
sleep. The actual or potential cautery made upon the
place immediately after the accident prevents all those
disorders. Ammonia taken internally and Ammoniated
frictions dissipate them at a more advanced period.
Abandoned to its, If the disease is cured spontaneously
only in those cases where the dose of the poison has
been infinitely
Serpents are fond of milk ; they are also greef:y of
wine, which intoxicates them ; they have occasionally
been seen to milk the cow, and they have been found
drowned at the bottom of vat'.
From persevering inquiries, I have become convinced
that the power of fascination, which has been attributed
to serpents, vipers as well as adders, is not a fable or
vulgar fiction. It has frequently occurred to persons
travelling through forests tit witness the poor little birds,
While uttering a plaintive cry, descend &in branch tr
branch, attracted as it were by some occult power, and
yield themselves up within the jaws of a serpent lying
hidden among the boughs of the tree—obedient victims
to the glance of their ixecutioner. The thread of this
charm is broken by simply whisking a switch through
the air ; no doubt, from the fact, that the whistling of
the air frightens the serpent, and thus parish ses its mag-
netic effluvium, What is the mechanism of this incre-
dible fascination, which so perfectly re-cats to one's mind
the fables of the Sirens? There is undoubtedly here a
physical cause, an emanation which envelopes the bird in
an atmosphere iif asphyxiating gas, in the same way as the
spider envelopes the fly in its gauze likanet.• To explain
the phenomenon in a perfect menner, let us suppese
that the serpent has the power of emitting (one on each
side ,it its mouth) two streams of a poisonous [rid stu
pifying gas, which proceed to unite above the head ce
the bird. If the bird attempt to fly the danger, it can
only do so by descesiding, for it is there only it will find
a free space ; in proportion as it descends, the two jets
will continue to mote and to follow it; and it is thus
that to escape asphyxia the poet. bird drops within tie
jaws of .the serpeet; it falls into Se) Ila in avoiding Cho,
rybdis. The power of fascination being common u
vipers as well as adders, it is evident that these latter
have the faculty of regaining, in certain cases, the cha.
'teeter which alone makes the difference of the two spe-
cies. The venom of the serpent partakes of the nature
of all organic poisons; it does not lose its venetneus qua
lities by drying; and the prick from the tooth of a dead
viper or rattlesnake is as much f-ared by those who are
in the habit eif meking preparations of these reptiles as
that of the living animal.