Sprengel says: “Linnæus omnem fabulam (de Basilisco) ad Lacertæ genus, capite cristato, _Iguanæ_ proximum, reduxit.” (Comment. in Dioscor.) M. l’Abbé Bonneterre also affirms that the basilisk is not poisonous. (Encyc. Méthod.) It may be doubted, however, if we be now acquainted with the basilisk of the ancients. It would appear to us almost certain that the ancient basilisk must have been either the _cobra di capello_, or one of the serpents described by an intelligent traveller under the names of _buskah_ and _el effah_ as being still found in Morocco. (Jackson’s Account of Morocco, 109.) The former of these, indeed, judging of it from the drawing which he gives must be a variety of the _cobra_ or _coluber naja_, L. We may add that a very intelligent modern authority on the toxicology of the ancients, Ardoyn, gives such a description of the basilisk as applies very well to the _cobra_. The crown (corona) on the head can refer to no other serpent than the hooded snake. (De venenis, vi.) It is now well ascertained that the _cobra_ is indigenous in Africa. SECT. XX.—ON THE SEA PASTINACA AND MURÆNA. In the case of sea animals, such as the fire-flaire and murene, the diagnosis is obvious, for these fishes are well known. Those who are bitten by them are remedied by four drops of the juice of figs, or a little more, with three or four small branches of wild thyme in a draught, and those things used for echidna. * * * * * COMMENTARY. Nicander says that the sting of the pastinaca occasions putridity in the flesh of a man who is wounded by it, and that it proves fatal to a tree in like manner. The same thing is asserted by Aëtius, Oppian, Phile, and Ælian. Our author and Actuarius copy from Dioscorides. Avicenna recommends an embrocation of hot vinegar, and ointments composed of bay-leaves, oil of pellitory, and so forth; and in like manner recommends various calefacient medicines internally. The murene of the ancients was that elegant species of eel to which the scientific name of _muræna helena_ is now applied. It is rarely found on the British coasts but is common in the Mediterranean. The pastinaca marina of the ancients, was the _raia pastinaca_, L., i. q., _trygon pastinaca_, Cuvier, namely, the sting-ray or fire-flaire. Sprengel affirms that its sting is not venomous, as the ancients represent; but there can be no doubt that it is capable of producing inflammation. See Yarrel (British Fishes, ii, 588.) We may mention in this place that the account of the copulation between the viper and the murene which is given by Nicander, Oppian and other ancient authors, is held to be fabulous by Andreas, the physician, as quoted by the scholiast on Nicander. (Ad Theriac, 822.) SECT. XXI.—ON THE SEA-DRAGON.