Acute pain in the wounded part, attended with almost immediate tumefaction; the part appears first red, and then livid; the local affection extends itself, and the surrounding skin becomes similarly affected. The pulse is small, frequent, and irregular; the respiration is disturbed; the patient complains of great debility, and faintness which often amounts to syncope; vomiting takes place; pain is felt in the umbilical region, and he becomes jaundiced; and, in fatal cases, the wound assumes a malignant character, and gangrene takes place. In this country the affection is rarely mortal,[477] although the circumstances of constitutional debility, unusual heat of season, and injudicious treatment, have in several instances led to a fatal issue. _Physiological action of the Poison of Vipers._ The result of numerous experiments justify us in referring this poison to the second division of our classification. The symptoms which it produces evidently depend on its absorption, and its passage into the circulation, when it exerts its peculiar action on the blood. It is somewhat singular that this poison should be perfectly inert when taken into the stomach; a fact, however, which appears to have been well known from the earliest periods; whence such wounds were commonly sucked[478] with impunity; and we learn that when _Cato_ marched the remains of _Pompey’s_ army through Africa, he very wisely informed the soldiers, who, although dying from thirst, feared to drink the waters which contained serpents, that no evil could arise from such indulgence.[479] “Noxia Serpentum est admisto sanguine Pestis, Morsu Virus habent, et Fatum Dente minantur, Pocula Morte carent”---- Among the insects of Britain some will be found to possess fluids highly stimulant, and sometimes, although rarely, occasioning death. These British insects, however, cannot be compared in virulence with the _Furia Infernalis_, _Pulex Penetrans_, the _Scorpion_, and the _Tarantula_; but their natural history is nevertheless interesting, and the instances of mischief arising from an application of their venom are not unimportant. Of the genus _Vespa_ we have three species, each of which possesses the property of producing violent and painful inflammation, sometimes followed by considerable danger, where the injury has been inflicted on parts of great sensibility, and in irritable habits, viz. Vespa _Crabro_, the _hornet_; V. _Vulgaris_, _common wasp_; C. _Coarctata_, _small wasp_. Instances are recorded of the wasp, having been introduced into the mouth with fruit, and produced by its sting on the _velum palati_ a sudden swelling which has so intercepted the respiration as to occasion suffocation.[480] Of the _Apis_ there are seven British species; the most remarkable of which are the Apis _Rufa_, or _small field bee_; A. _Mellifica_, _the common hive bee_; A. _Terrestris_, _humble bee_; and A. _Subterranea_, or _great humble bee_.