previous next

CHAP. 18.—PARTICULARS RELATIVE TO THE ASP.

The sting of the asp takes deadly effect by causing torpor and drowsiness. Of all serpents, injuries inflicted by the asp are the most incurable; and their venom, if it comes in contact with the blood or a recent wound, produces instantaneous death. If, on the other hand, it touches an old sore, its fatal effects are not so immediate. Taken internally, in however large a quantity, the venom is not injurious,1 as it has no corrosive properties; for which reason it is that the flesh of animals killed by it may be eaten with impunity.

I should hesitate in giving circulation to a prescription for injuries inflicted by the asp, were it not that M. Varro, then in the eighty-third year of his age, has left a statement to the effect that it is a most efficient remedy for wounds inflicted by this reptile, for the person stung to drink his own urine.

1 This is the fact.

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.

An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.

load focus Latin (Karl Friedrich Theodor Mayhoff, 1906)
hide Places (automatically extracted)

View a map of the most frequently mentioned places in this document.

hide References (6 total)
hide Display Preferences
Greek Display:
Arabic Display:
View by Default:
Browse Bar: