Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 2.djvu/723

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»f experiments^ by which it appeared that this oil was not the great remedy that was pretended. (See the article Oil of Olives.) And added to their accounts^ fome others of pcr- ions bitten, in which all the dreadful confequences of that poilbn are ihewn, and the remedies by which they were cured are mentioned. Phiiof. Tranf. N°. 443, 444, 445. Their firft inftance is in the cafe of Mr. Piron,who was bitten at the end of the fore-finger by an enraged riper ; there im- mediately ifliied a drop ot blood from the wound, and the firft application made to it was the covering up the whole finger With a quantity of Venice-treacle; the finger, however, fwelled violently, and was fcarifiqd in feveral places, and the patient was made to cat the body of the Viper boiled, aiid drank after it a glafs of wine with fome Venice-treacle, and ■with a few drops of the volatile fpirit of Vipers ; and the finger was wrapped round with comprefTes and bandages, wetted in aqua vitas. Soon after this the patient began to have inclinations to vomit, he vomited very plentifully, the fwelling increafed, and his arm, which was now very much diftended, was fesrified in twenty places, and comprefTes of linncn dipped in aqua vitas laid on the wounds; he afterwards took volatile ialt ot Vipers in repeated dofes, had more fca- rificatiohs made on his arm, and he drank in the fpace of an afternoon and evening a quart of ftrong wine. He flept very found after this, and the fymptoms all difappeared, he >vas almoffc recovered by fix o'clock the next morning, only the fcanfi cations took two months to heal, and after that time he enjoyed a perfect ftate of health. A fecond inftance, is that of a young lad of a robuftconftitu- t!on bitten by a Viper, enraged and kept for fome time in a very hot place near the fire ; he felt a pain like that of oil ot vitriol dropped on a wound, but without delay he cut off the head of the Viper, bruifed it, and applied it to the wound, and tied the finger on which he was bitten very tight round with a binder: He after this had fome fcaririca- tiuns made, and rubbed into them a quantity of the fat of the Viper ; he killed four Vipers, and ufed all their far, and took three drams of Venice-treacle in fome wine. ' His whole arm fwelled, he perceived a violent heat over his whole body, and the other hand was fo fwelled at length that he could fcarce fhut it : On this he took a large dofe of Venice- treacle, camphor, volatile fait oi'Vipers, of amber and of fal-ar mo niac, and a dram of volatile fpirit of fal-armoniac, and fal volatile oleofum ; this he repeated at fome diftance of time, he was blooded in the oppofite arm, the patient vomited vio- lently, and an inciiion being made all along the finger, there followed no blood. The hand, arm, and breaft were em- brocated with a mixture of fpirit of lavender, camphor, Ve- nice-treacle, and the fat of Vipers. After having vomited plentifully, and been embrocated with this warm mixture, he found himfelf much eafier, at eight o'clock at night lie took another dofe of his volatile medicines, and flept till four in the morning, he then took a large glafs of wine and flept till fix, and at feven eat a part of a chicken with a good appetite. The furgeons would have made more fcari- ■fications on the arm, but he would not fuffer it ; and three .days afterwards an erifipelas appeared, to which he applied a mixture of aqua vitse and ointment of marfh mallows, and fi- jiaSIy was perfectly recovered.

Thefe are two hiftances in which the fymptoms of the bite appeared in much the fame manner with thofe of the man who luffered himfelf to be bitten in England, in order to be cured by the oil. The fleep came on in all in the fame cir- pumftances, and they were all cured, as well he who ufed no unctuous application at all, as he who ufed the fat of the Vipers, or the Englifhman who depended upon the oil. The internal medicines given to them all were of much the fame kind ; and all that can be concluded from the whole, is, that either thefe bites would not have proved mortal in tbem- felves, or that the cordial medicines, which they took inter- nally were the remedies that prevented the mifchief that would have enfued ; and thefe feenV to have acted not as fpecifics againft the bite of this animal, but merely as me- dicines that would flop the fpreading of a gangrene'; the un- prevented increafe of which is the thing that proves fatal from this creature's bite.

The directions of the animals which had died bv the bi,te of the Viper, whether they had or had not been rubbed with oil, afforded all the fame appearances. The limb which had received the wound was in all fwelled and livid, and thefe fymptoms ufually were carried along the thigh to the belly, and fometimes up to the breaft. Incifions made along thefe parts always difcovered the cellules of the membrana adipofa full of a bloody-coloured water, and the membrane itfelf was fwelled, blackiih, and gangrened. And this appeared always more plainly in the belly, than in any other part ; the mem- brana adipofa in all other parts of the body was in its natural ftate. The injured parts often had a cadaverous fmell ; the mufclcs of the wounded limb were alfo found of a brownifh colour, and their fibres had loft their confiltence, and feemed ready to give way to the approaching gangrene. Nor is this effect confined to the external parts alone ; a goofe that had been bitten had three gangrenous fpots' on its heart, ' and all tfia indications of a beginning gangrene in other parts of it ;

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the eoneave fide of die liver was alfo gangreaafc and had wholy loft us confidence ; and the lungs ot a fowl that had been bitten on the wing, were found in part gangrened The cfteas however were different in degree, from the bites of the feveral Vipers ; and there feems no reafon to doubt, but that the bites of different animals, though of the fame fpecies, under different circumftances, either in regard to the crea- ture wounding, or the creature wounded, may be followed with very different confequences j fo that remedies are not to be depended on from their fuccefs in one or two trials. Mem. Acad. Scienc. Par. 1737.

VIPERA, Viper, in zoology. See the article Viper.

Vipera Pileata, or Vittata, m zoology, a name by which fome authors have called a remarkable fpecies of Indian fer- pent, more ufually known by the name of Cabra de Capella. See the article Cobra de Capella.

VIPERARIA, in botany, a name given by fome authors to the Sarxonera, or vipers-grafs. Dale's Pharm. p. 83.

VIRGA (Cycl.)— Virga Aurea, gulden Rod, in botany, the name of a genus of plants ; the charaflers of which arc thefe. The flower is of the radiated kind ; its difk is compofed of flofcules, and its outer circle of femi-flofcules. Thefe all are placed upon the embryo fruits, and. are contained in a common fcaly cup : Thefe embryos finally ripen into feeds, winged with down. To this it is alfo to be added, that the flowers ufually ftand in long feries towards the tops of the ftalks.

The fpecies of Golden-rod, enumerated by Mr. Tourriefort, are thefe: 1. The broad-leaved Golden-rod, with ferrated leaves* called the faracens confoud. 2. The broad- leaved Golden-rod, with ferrated leaves, variegated with white. 3.. The common broad-leaved Golden-rod. 4. The white- flowered Golden-rod, with narrower and lefs ferrated leaves. 5. The mountain Gohlen-rod, with broad fmooth leaves. 6. The mountain Golden-rodi with broad hairy leaves. 7. The alpine Golden-rod, with rigid bay-like leaves. 8. The alpine Golden-rod, with long foft and (harp-pointed leaves, a. The harrow-leaved Canada Golden-rod, with a fpecious panicle.

16. The narrow-leaved hairy Canada Golden-rod, with a lefs fpecious panicle. 11. The fea lavender-leaved Golden-rod, with the flowers all placed on one fide the ftalks. 12. The large flowered dwarf Golden-rod. 13. The annual white- flowered toad-flax-leaved acrid Golden-rod, called acrid annual fleabane. 14. The great Golden-rod, with vifcous and ftrong- fcented leaves. 15. The great Golden-rod, with vifcous and ftrong-fcented leaves, and with excrefcences like galls. 16. The lefler Golden-rod, with vifcid and/ ftrong-fcented leaves.

17. The fhmbby Portugal Golden-rod, with long, narrow, andyifcous leaves. 18. The pale purple-flowered Golden- rod, with broad auriculated leaves. 19. The purple-flowered Golden-rod, with broad and not auriculated leaves. 20.- The broad-leaved Virga-anrea, with deep violet-coloured flowers. 21. The broad and undulated leaved Golden-rod, with pale purple flowers. 22. The Tripolium-flowered Golden-rod. 23. The Canada Golden-rod, with fmooth, roundiih, and ferrated leaves. 24. The Canada Golden-rod, with extremely broad fmooth leaves. 25. The tall Canada Golden-rod, with leaves hoary underneath. 26. The New- England Golden-rod, with broad rigid leaves. 27. Tha dwarf Canada Golden-rod, with toad-flax leaves. 28. The dwarf Canada Golden-rod, with the leaves of the fmaller willows. 29. The great flowered American Golden-rod, with- afphodel roots. Tourn. Inft. p. 483. ,

The common Golden-rod is an altringent, and its root is given in powder with great fuccefs in diarrhoeas, dyfenteries, and in hemorrhages of all kinds ; particularly in fpittings of blood.

VIRGA Pajloris, in botany, a name given by fome authors to Dipfacus. Vid. Lemery & Miller in voc Dipfaeus ; alfo Tournef. Inft. Bot. p. 466.

Where the name Virga pajloris occurs in the tranflation of the Arabian writers, it is not to be fuppofed to mean the plant we call Virga pajloris.

It is indeed the literal tranflation of the haffalelrheir of Sera- pion aiid Avifenna ; but they called the common horfctail by this name, when they applied the adjective female to it ; and when they added male, they meant by it the common knot- grafs.

Both thefe plants poflefTed the common virtues of aftririgents and agglutiriants, and were for that reafon placed together by the old Greek writers, and were both called Polygonum by them, having both an equal title to that name, as it expreflea ho other than a plant that has many joints ; and they diftin- guifhed the knot-grafs by the name of the male Polygonum, and the horfe-tail by the name of the female ; as the Ara- bians did by the names male and female Virga pajloris.

Virga Sanguinea, in botany, a name given by Mathiolus, and fome other authors, to the cornus fasmina, or dogberry-buQl, common in our hedges. Ger. Emac. Ind. 2.

Virgje Lateralis Minimus, in anatomy, a name given by fome writers to a mufcle, called by others levator ani parvus, and by fome tranfverfus ani. It is called by Albinus the tranjverfus pertltm^ and by feme Ircinjvcrfalis penis.

VIRGATA