tom of their affertions. If the marvellous effects attributed to the basilisk, be in any respect authentic; that ferpent (or rather viper) must certainly be poffeffed of an electrical power, fomewhat like the torpedo, but in a much greater and more fatal degree. Take one instance for the whole; we are told upon apparently good authority, that if a man travels on horfeback near the den of a bafilisk; and the king* of ferpents but touches the horse, both the horse and the riderare ftruck dead immediately. If this fact be real, is it not an inftance of electricity in its fullest extent?

*In vacua regnat Bafilifcus arena.

LUCAN.

Galen has, (as far as I can find) given fuch an account of the fafcinating look of this reptile, as would feem to give a fanction to the fashionable but ridiculous notion of animal magnetism !

LETTER

LETTER LXXXI.

HOMERIC WOUNDS, &c.

(20th ILIAD continued.)

SIR,

WE

E have here a kind of constellation of wounds, (as thick as ftars in the milky way) which Achilles exhibits in his death-doing fury; and I shall endeavour to dispatch these said wounds and deaths as speedily as the implacable hero inflicted them.

ὁ δὲ φασγάνω ἔλα καθ' Μπαρ,

εκ δὲ οἱ παρ όλισθεν, αλὰς μέλαν αϊ μα καὶ αὐτό

κόλπον ἐνέπλησεν.

With the fword he (Achilles) so smote the liver, that the liver fell out; and black blood from it filled the bofom of the dying warrior."-You, Sir, (who will perceive that the hepatic artery, the vena porta, and at least one branch of the vena cava afcendens, must have been divided) will feel the propriety of the fudden

U

ludden effufion of blood.—I remember that Van Swieten, the ingenious commentator on the learned Boerhaave, has, in fome part of his commentaries, attempted to affign reasons, why the blood of heroes and athletes, should be of a black, or at least of a dark colour.-Enough of this-take a second flying wound.

He (Achilles) wounded Mulius,

σε δερὶ καὶ ὅς, είθας δι ̓ ἐαῖος ἦλθ ̓ ελέροια αιχνὴ χαλκείη.

with a spear, on the ear, and the brazen point of the fpear came out at the other ear." This must have caufed inftant death; fince either the medulla oblongata, or the medulla spinalis, (or both) must have been very much injured.

Take a third wound, without further ceremony; the aforefaid Achilles fmote Echeclus on the middle of the head with a large fword,

་

σε πᾶν δ' υπεθερμάνθη ξίφος αίματο

and all the fword was warmed with blood." As this wound appears to have been inflicted on the longitudinal or strait future of the scull; and as I believe

all the ramifications of the carotid arteries, divide into exceedingly fmall branches before they approach the brain; (begging Homer's pardon) I cannot conceive whence all the blood could proceed. Virgil's

་་

· hafta tepefacta cerebro," is, (as I have already obferved at large) a great improvement on this paffage. And Pope, by translating Virgil instead of Homor; or rather, by copying Dryden's verfion of the Æneid, has, in my opinion, improved on the original.-Read and determine

Warm in the brain the fmoaking weapon lies.-POPE. And in the brain-pan warmly buried lay,-DRY. VIR.

LETTER LXXXII.

HOMERIC WOUNDS, &c.'

SIR,

HERE is a tedious particularity in marking out

THE

each individual wound, and fpecifying the name of the warrior, who either gave or received it, which I intend in future to avoid: I must however beg to be indulged the liberty this once, as I fhall

refer you to a wound that, according to my judgment, is the most accurately described, respecting its confequence, of any in the whole Iliad. Mariones, in the 13th Book, smote Acamas with a spear,

σε αιδοίων Με μεσηγυ και ομφαλό, ενθα μάλιςα Γίνετ Αρης αλεγεινος οιζυροισι βροτοισιν.

between the navel and the groin; where a war-wound is the most grievous to miferable mortals.". And if any phyfiologist doubts the fact, let him confult thole furgeons, who have performed what is called the high operation for the ftone, or who have attempted to puncture the bladder above the os pubis, in

order