Philosophic essays on the manners of various foreign animals; with observations on the laws and customs of several eastern nations / Written in French by M. Foucher d'Obsonville, ; and translated into English by Thomas Holcroft.

  • Foucher d'Obsonville, 1734-1802.
Date:
1784
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Philosophic essays on the manners of various foreign animals; with observations on the laws and customs of several eastern nations / Written in French by M. Foucher d'Obsonville, ; and translated into English by Thomas Holcroft. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    [ >4 ] amufed myfelf fome time in confidering it with attention. Its body was near five inches long, and about the fixth part of an inch in diameter; and I afterwards learnt, that it rarely exceeds fix inches in length. Its Ann was a dirty brown, fpot- ted on the fides with ftnall lengthened points of a darker colour ; the belly was thinly fpeckled, and of a fomething lighter colour, like the generality of reptiles. Its eyes, notwithflanding their exceffive fmall- nefs, were apparently black and fparkling ; its mouth was exceedingly wide, infomuch, that without theleaft violence I could intro- duce a body of more than a line in diameter; its teeth were as fine as the points of needles, but fo fhort and compaft, that it did not appear poflible for it to bite a man, or at leaft for it to penetrate beyond the epi- dermis. The chief of the village, where I was, told me, that the only thing to be apprehended from this infedt was, left it fliould introduce itfelf into the mouth of noftrilsk Serpent