On the rocks near the sea there are found also a kind of testaceous animals called in Italian _Ballani_, which are of a flesh colour, and have an excellent taste. Their shell has the form of a half-blown tulip. The pipe coralline, _Tubipora_, has almost the appearance of a leaf covered with prickles.--At Collam there are found also various kinds of Turbinites. * * * * * SNAKES.--The commonest, though not the most poisonous kind of these animals, found in Malabar, is the _Nallapamba_, that is, the beautiful snake. It is so called, because it has hanging round its neck two pieces of skin, which shine like a pair of spectacles, and which it can extend over its head like a hood or cap. Of this snake there are several varieties. One has a complete cap at both sides of the head, and is called _Padamuliaven_: another is furnished with this cap only on one side, and is called _Ottapadaven_. A third kind has a complete cap, but is much smaller than the other two, and is the most poisonous of all. When these snakes attack a man, or fight with the _Kirri_, they raise themselves up in a perpendicular direction; turn round on their tail, whistle, move the upper part of their body from side to side, and in that manner endeavour to wound their antagonist. Some of these snakes are from three to four, others from six to eight palms in length; but the smallest, which the Indians call _Caytolacurungni_, is, as already said, the most poisonous. A person bit by it dies generally in three or four hours; but this depends on the place where the wound has been inflicted, whether in any of the nobler parts of the body from which the poison is conveyed sooner to the heart. With theriac of Poictiers, and the antidote of Madura, I have cured more than fifty persons who had been bitten by serpents of this kind. When I took charge of such patients, I caused them, above all things, to be kept under a very warm covering, and both the doors and windows to be carefully shut, that no cool air might touch them. As I knew from experience that the poison communicates to the blood a deadly coldness, by which it is curdled, I made my patients frequently drink warm water, and gave them two or three doses of theriac or the Madura antidote. If a perspiration followed, and if their breathing became freer, I continued the same treatment, making them take theriac and warm water. If the whole mass of the blood, however, was already infected, my method of cure failed, and the patients infallibly died. The previous symptoms were blueness of the lips and around the eyes; the face became of a dark brown and white colour, and all the limbs turned rigid. The most effectual remedies which can be used in such cases are, eau de luce, and caustic alkali. These spirituous things, however, are difficult to be procured in India; because they soon evaporate, and cannot be preserved. The natives of Malabar generally