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Article MR. TASKER'S LETTERS Page 1 of 3 →
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Mr. Tasker's Letters
MR . TASKER'S LETTERS
. CONTINUED .
LETTER THE SEVENTH
ON LUCANS ACCOUNT OF SERPENTS
SIR , OF all the pages of the Pharsalia , I would most particularly recommend the latter part of the 9 th book to your perusal ; for there , as you will find , Lucan ' s origin of Serpents in Africa is most poetically and romantically attributed to the blood that distilled from the amputated head of the gorgon Medusa ; : —Virus stillantis tabe Medusa ; .
You will likewise be much delighted with the natural history of venomous serpents , exemplified in a great variety of instances ; most of them I believe are found to exist , except the Amphisbaena , which I take to be a creature of the imagination ; for , if ever there was a serpent with two heads , it must have been a monstrous and not a natural production . But I desire chiefly to refer 3 ou to the fatal of the several soldiersThe standardbearerAulus
cases . - , ( a young man of noble famity ) , was the first that suffered , by the bite of the Dipsas : the unquenchable and fatal thirst that ensued , was attended with no violent or any other alarming symptom : " Vix dolor , aut sensus dentis fuit . " Was this uncommon thirst the specific action of the virusor the
, mere result of feverish heat ?—Unlucky Sabellus next felt the tooth of the Seps on his ancle ; attended with symptoms most unaccountably malignant : the venom of this diminutive reptile is described as possessing a power not only of dissolving the blood , but even the flesh and the bones . Among other particulars , it is expressly said , to perform this operation on the " vinculo , nervorum : " does he mean
perves in the true sense , or onty tendons ? Is there any animal poi-i son in nature really possessed of such destructive power ? Or , rather , is not the account incredibty exaggerated by the author ' s fanc 3 ?— . Nasidius experienced different , but equalty horrible , effects from the poison of the burning Prestor ; for he was almost instantly inflamed and swoln all over his body . Late tollente veneno .
This man ' s body is recorded to be so peculiarly putrid , that the birds of prey would not touch it ; and his comrades were afraid to come near enough to the corpse to give it burial , but crescens fugere cadaver ; fled from the carcase , which continued to swell or grow in size even after death .
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Mr. Tasker's Letters
MR . TASKER'S LETTERS
. CONTINUED .
LETTER THE SEVENTH
ON LUCANS ACCOUNT OF SERPENTS
SIR , OF all the pages of the Pharsalia , I would most particularly recommend the latter part of the 9 th book to your perusal ; for there , as you will find , Lucan ' s origin of Serpents in Africa is most poetically and romantically attributed to the blood that distilled from the amputated head of the gorgon Medusa ; : —Virus stillantis tabe Medusa ; .
You will likewise be much delighted with the natural history of venomous serpents , exemplified in a great variety of instances ; most of them I believe are found to exist , except the Amphisbaena , which I take to be a creature of the imagination ; for , if ever there was a serpent with two heads , it must have been a monstrous and not a natural production . But I desire chiefly to refer 3 ou to the fatal of the several soldiersThe standardbearerAulus
cases . - , ( a young man of noble famity ) , was the first that suffered , by the bite of the Dipsas : the unquenchable and fatal thirst that ensued , was attended with no violent or any other alarming symptom : " Vix dolor , aut sensus dentis fuit . " Was this uncommon thirst the specific action of the virusor the
, mere result of feverish heat ?—Unlucky Sabellus next felt the tooth of the Seps on his ancle ; attended with symptoms most unaccountably malignant : the venom of this diminutive reptile is described as possessing a power not only of dissolving the blood , but even the flesh and the bones . Among other particulars , it is expressly said , to perform this operation on the " vinculo , nervorum : " does he mean
perves in the true sense , or onty tendons ? Is there any animal poi-i son in nature really possessed of such destructive power ? Or , rather , is not the account incredibty exaggerated by the author ' s fanc 3 ?— . Nasidius experienced different , but equalty horrible , effects from the poison of the burning Prestor ; for he was almost instantly inflamed and swoln all over his body . Late tollente veneno .
This man ' s body is recorded to be so peculiarly putrid , that the birds of prey would not touch it ; and his comrades were afraid to come near enough to the corpse to give it burial , but crescens fugere cadaver ; fled from the carcase , which continued to swell or grow in size even after death .