VIPER BROTH AS A CORROBORANT.

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the eye, the pupil of which is a rectangular oblong square,instead of round, as in all other European serpents.

The vipers do more mischief in the Maremme than isgenerally known. In the month of October, when sharpweather begins in the mountains of Abruzzo , large flocks ofi goats are brought to the low warm regions of the Maremme ,where they remain the winter. Before, however, they aretaken back again to the mountains in the spring, the goat-herds assure me, that they lose a dozen or more from thel bites of vipers. The legs of goats are particularly “ clean,”i as horse jockies call it.; and a viper can hardly stick in histooth without penetrating some vessel, which speedilyconveys the poison through the system. The same occursI to cows, calves, and dogs; when bitten in the leg they oftenperish, while in other parts the effects are comparativelyj nothing.

!j Naples, like other places, has its “ old school” in medi-j cine, in politics, and in other matters. According to thej olden Pharmacopoeia, viper broth is recommended as most! restorative and nutritious to debilitated and consumptivepersons. Hence every apothecary’s shop is furnished witha large chest, containing some scores of living vipers, and,of course, there is such a trade as that of viper catchers. Ineed not inform my intelligent readers, that the virtue ofviper broth exists alone in the imaginations, or rather in themouldy writings of the long since departed prescribes.

' One pound of eels contains more nourishment than ten of

j viper flesh. I have cooked and eaten them in various ways,

! but in no way have I found their meat otherwise than dry,

| tough, and insipid. I have also eaten several other kinds of

! serpents, excepting the one called “ water snake,” (coluber

: viperina), -which stinks too much of garlic, and other com-

pound abominations, for me to attempt it. But althoughthe peasants in the south of France eat snakes under the