Nor are our Mines in _Great-Britain_ altogether free from these fatal Damps, that have turn’d Coal-pits into Graves. In a Coal-pit belonging to Lord _Sinclair_ in _Scotland_, seven or eight Men intending to work in a Place where they had been the Day before, but stepping a little further, they all fell down dead, as if they had been shot. The Wife of one of them, venturing to see her Husband, fell down dead as soon as she came near the Corps[45]. Footnote 45: _Lowthorp_’s _Abridgment_, vol. ii. p. 373. III. We come now to the sensible Region, where animal Poisons reign; that is, Poison drawn from Animals, as the Viper, Asp, Scorpion, Lepus Marinus: and here we are to encounter with an Army of Serpents, and their formidable Train. When we speak of the Poison of Serpents, we must not suppose it diffused thro’ the whole Body, as some have imagined. Many Errors about the particular Situation of it, have been happily removed by the Learned Dr. _Redi_, and Dr. _Mead_, who observes the Viper has always been so notorious for its Poison, that the most remote Antiquity, made it an Emblem of what is hurtful and destructive, but were not agreed from whence the Poison proceeded, whether from the _Saliva_, the _Teeth_, the _Gall_, _&c._ which leads me to a Passage in the _noble Italian_, who says: ... That as a certain Learned Society in _Italy_ were debating this Point, one _Jacobus Sozzi_ (_audiendi gratiâ_) who was allow’d to be present, stationed himself in a corner of the Place, and hearing some of them affirm that the Poison was in the Gall-bladder, fell a smiling; and being ask’d the Reason, he answer’d, that the Serpent’s _Gall_ was an innocent Part: Whereupon, in their Presence, he drank a Glass of Wine, mixt with the _Gall of a Viper_, without any ill Effect. One of the Company said, he came thither with his Body prepared by Alexipharmicks. He, to convince them of the contrary, try’d the Experiment upon Dogs, and other Animals, by giving them the _Gall_ of Vipers to drink in abundance, without any Danger ensuing[46]. Footnote 46: _Redi nobilis Aretini Experim. in Res Naturales_, pag. 163, 164, 165. In the Debate about the Seat of the Poison, the famous _Italian_ maintains, that all the _Venom_ of a Serpent consists in a _yellow Liquor_ contain’d in a Bladder, at the bottom of its Tooth, which Liquor, upon its biting, by the Pressure of the Bladder, is forced thro’ a Tube within the Tooth, into the Wound, and thence ensue direful Effects. This Hypothesis he supports by a good number of Experiments upon various Animals, which were bit by a Viper, after those venemous Bags were taken out, without any Signs of Poison, or any ill Consequence at all[47]. Footnote 47: _Seignior Redi._