AN _ESSAY_ TOWARDS A NATURAL HISTORY OF _SERPENTS_: IN TWO PARTS. I. The First exhibits a general View of SERPENTS, in their various Aspects; such as their Kinds, Bulk, Food, Motion, Propagation, Coverture, Colours. In which is inserted a short Account of Vegetable, Mineral, and Animal Poison, particularly that of the SERPENT; and its Cure in various Nations; where also the SERPENT is used as Food and Physick. II. The Second gives a View of most SERPENTS that are known in the several Parts of the World; described by their various Names, different Countries, and Qualities. Illustrated with COPPER-PLATES, Engraved by the BEST HANDS. III. To which is added a Third Part; containing Six DISSERTATIONS upon the following Articles, as collateral to the Subject. 1. Upon the PRIMEVAL SERPENT in PARADISE. 2. The FIERY SERPENTS that infested the Camp of ISRAEL. 3. The BRAZEN SERPENT erected by MOSES. 4. The DIVINE WORSHIP given to SERPENTS by the NATIONS. 5. The ORIGIN and REASON of that MONSTROUS WORSHIP. 6. Upon the ADORATION of different Kinds of BEASTS by the EGYPTIANS, with divers Instances of the same Stupidity in other Nations. The whole intermix’d with Variety of ENTERTAINING DIGRESSIONS, PHILOSOPHICAL and HISTORICAL. ---------------------------------------------------------------- By CHARLES OWEN_ D. D. ---------------------------------------------------------------- _LONDON:_ Printed for the AUTHOR. Sold by JOHN GRAY, at the _Cross-Keys_ in the _Poultry_, near _Cheapside_. M.DCC.XLII. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [Illustration] _TO_ Sir _Hans Sloane_ Bar^t. _SIR_, The Serpent [_Subject_ of the following Sheets,] being one part of your celebrated and expensive Collection of Rarities, naturally leads me to beg the Honour of your Name to grace its Entrance into the publick World. I can’t enter into the vanity of thinking, that the Book can be any improvement to one who has been so long and laborious an Enquirer after Truth, and penetrated so far into the Empire of Nature: but as in Divinity, a willing Mind; so in Learning, the best Endeavour will be accepted. And tho’ the Book cannot recommend it self to you, your Name may recommend it to others. Happy are the Times, when Knowledge is the study of those who have superior Abilities for it: Happy therefore is the present Age, that has you, among many other Learned, so eminent an Encourager of it.