The _Ethiopian Dragons_ just mentioned, have no proper Name, and are only known by a Periphrasis, _viz._ _Killers of Elephants_. The Method is, by winding themselves about the _Elephants_ Legs, and then thrusting their Heads up their Nostrils, sting them, and suck their Blood till they are dead. _ALEXANDER_, in his Tour thro’ the _Red-Sea_, says, he saw Serpents of incredible Magnitude, some about 30 Cubits long[25]. Footnote 25: _Ælian_, lib. 17. cap. 1. We read of monstrous Dragons, particularly two Draconic Monsters mentioned by _Alexander_’s Ambassadors, seen by them in their Return from the Kingdom of _Abisaris_, one of 80 Cubits long, the other 140[26]. Footnote 26: _Strabo_, de situ orbis, lib. 15. βιασαρου χωρα _Bisari_, alias _Abisari Regio_. In places adjacent to _Batavia_, a _Dutch_ Settlement in the _East-Indies_, we read of Serpents 50 Feet long; and the Skin of one, which was 20 Feet long, that swallowed an _Infant_, is shewn in _Batavia_, the _Metropolis_ of the _Dutch_ Empire in the _East-Indies_. In _America_ also are Serpents of prodigious Bulk, from 25, to 30 Feet long[27]; but this Subject will be further considered in the _Second Part_ of this Book. Footnote 27: Atlas American. On the other hand, there are Serpents, as remarkably little as the _Amphisbæna_, _Gallic_ Viper, and some of the Lizards, that are not above four or six Inches long. Most of these Minutillos vary in outward Form. And here, I can’t but observe that as the Magnitude of some other Animals is very wonderful, so, on the contrary, the Minuteness of some is equally astonishing, if not more so: There are some very _little Insects_ that are conspicuous to the Eye, but more that are _invisible_ without the Help of a _Microscope_, which is an optical Instrument, that magnifies Objects, and makes them bigger than really they are; it helps to discover minute Particles, of which Bodies are composed, and the curious Contexture of them. To those who are not used to a rigid mathematic Proof, this may be illustrated by the Smallness of many organized Bodies. There is a Plant called _Harts-Tongue_, ten thousand Seeds of which hardly make the Bulk of a Pepper-Corn. Now the Cover of the true Body of each Seed, the parenchymous and ligneous Parts of both; the Fibres of those Parts, the Principles of those Fibres, and the homogeneous Particles or Atoms of each Principle, being moderately multiplied one by another, afford a hundred thousand Millions of formed Atoms in the space of a Pepper-Corn, says the learned Dr. _Grew_[28]. Footnote 28: _Cosmologia Sacra_, B. i. chap. 3. The same is yet more evident from the Stupendous Smallness of some Animals, especially in the Sperm of smaller Insects; which have been observed by Mr. _Leeuwenhoek_, to be some Millions of times smaller than a grain Sand. This learned Gentleman has observed more of them in the Spawn of a Cod-fish, than there are People living on the Face of all the Earth at once[29].