An instance however is related in the Trans. Royal Soc. of Lond. of the unsuccessful administration of the vol. alkali in case of the bite of a Rattle-snake; and an intelligent physician of Georgia informed me, that he had applied the same stimulant in vain for the cure of the bites of poisonous snakes, but that being once stung by a Scorpion, he was instantaneously relieved by the topical use of this liquid. He further related to me a cure performed under his observation, by means of the singular antidote, which has often been resorted to in case of snake bites, that of the application of a living domestic fowl or other bird directly to the wound; three fowls were applied in this instance, of which two died in a few minutes, it was supposed, by the poison extracted from the wound. This account, from an observant medical professor, (who may nevertheless have been deceived) acquires some additional title to consideration by a similar event which lately occurred at Schooley's Mountain, New-Jersey. We are informed from a respectable source, that a boy was there bitten by a Copper-head, (Scytale mockeson.)[35] The part was immediately painful, became swollen and inflamed, and the sufferer had every appearance of having received a dangerous wound. A portion of the breast of a fowl was denudated of feathers, and applied to the wound; in a few minutes the fowl died, without having experienced any apparent violence or injurious pressure, from the hand of the applicant, the breast exhibiting a livid appearance. Another living fowl was then laid open by the knife, and the interior of the body placed upon the wound. The wound was subsequently scarified, and variously administered to. The boy however recovered, and his cure was generally attributed, at least in part, to the application of the birds. I am as far as any one from relying implicitly upon this mode of treatment, and would only resort to it when the part bitten could not be extirpated, and when a cautery was not at hand. Yet it must be confessed, that from the numerous attestations to its efficacy we should be almost led to suppose a very strong affinity to exist between the venom and the animal thus applied. That so numerous a catalogue of plants have gained credit with the uninformed as specifics, will not be surprising, when we know that the reservoir of the venom is very readily exhausted and slowly replenished. When this reservoir is vacated, the reptile is of course innoxious, and the most inert plant would then stand a good chance of gaining reputation with the credulous as a specific. For a similar reason we have so many cures for the bite of a rabid animal; and it may be for a similar reason that the body of an animal has acquired repute as an antidote, against the venom of a serpent.