{"id":6781,"date":"2016-02-18T10:00:51","date_gmt":"2016-02-18T15:00:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.harvard.edu\/houghtonmodern\/?p=6781"},"modified":"2016-02-10T12:19:19","modified_gmt":"2016-02-10T17:19:19","slug":"poisons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/houghtonmodern\/2016\/02\/18\/poisons\/","title":{"rendered":"Watch out for Vipers"},"content":{"rendered":"

This post is part of an ongoing series featuring items recently cataloged from the Julio Mario Santo Domingo Collection<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Manual medico-legal des poisons…<\/em> is a curious French text that appears to be primarily about the legal aspects of poisoning. \u00a0It also includes instructions on how to treat snakebites, the bites of rabid animals, as well as victims of anthrax, poisoning, drowning, and asphyxiation.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\"Img0040\"<\/a>This\u00a0color illustration of a viper is accompanied by a very specific description of the snake’s characteristics.\u00a0 The text\u00a0states that a viper has a triangular head that is wide and flat with two oblong black spots which originate between the eyes and form the letter V. \u00a0Typically two feet long and about an inch wide their fangs are long and hollow which enable the snake to inject venom into their prey. \u00a0The venom is produced by glands located at the back of the snake’s upper jaw. When the snake’s mouth is closed, the fangs recede into a thin membrane and fold against the roof of the\u00a0mouth.<\/div>\n
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The text also describes quite lyrically the symptoms if one is bitten by a viper which includes a “sharp pain and burning, which like a flash of fire, slips and spreads across the member and to the internal organs; congestion and tension occurring at a rapid pace…pulse becomes small, uneven;\u00a0you experience<\/span>\u00a0anxiety<\/span>, weakness, difficulty<\/span> breathing<\/span>, cold sweats<\/span>; the eye<\/span> becomes cloudy<\/span>, reason is<\/span> misplaced<\/span>; often<\/span> vomiting occurs<\/span>,<\/span> sometimes<\/span> <\/em>bilious…”<\/em> \u00a0Luckily instructions on how to treat the bite follow these symptoms.<\/span><\/div>\n
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This only other illustration in the volume is this particularly sad dog suffering from\u00a0rabies. \u00a0The text\u00a0alerts\u00a0the reader to the fact that the bite of an animal, in particular the saliva, can pass this acute disease to others. \u00a0As with the viper further instructions follow about what to do if you happen to be bitten by a rabid dog.<\/div>\n
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For more information about\u00a0the legal aspects of these poisonings the\u00a0Manuel m\u00e9dico-l\u00e9gal des poisons : pr\u00e9c\u00e9d\u00e9 de consid\u00e9rations sur l’empoisonnement, des moyens de le constater, du r\u00e9sultat d’exp\u00e9riences faites sur l’ac\u00e9tate de morphine et les autres alcalis v\u00e9g\u00e9taux; suivi d’une m\u00e9thode de traiter les morsures des animaux enrag\u00e9s et de la vip\u00e8re<\/em> \/R\u00e9dig\u00e9 … sous les yeux de Chaussier, par E. de Montmahou.Paris : Chez Comp\u00e8re Jeune, Libraire, 1824.\u00a0QK100 .M79 1824<\/a>\u00a0can be found in Countway’s<\/a> collection in Longwood.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Thanks to Alison Harris, Santo Domingo Project Manager, and Joan Thomas, Rare Book Cataloger at Countway for contributing this post.<\/em><\/div>\n
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This post is part of an ongoing series featuring items recently cataloged from the Julio Mario Santo Domingo Collection.   Manual medico-legal des poisons… is a curious French text that appears to be primarily about the legal aspects of poisoning. \u00a0It also includes instructions on how to treat snakebites, the bites of rabid animals, as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4490,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[72745],"tags":[285,72720,148167,116673,148166,148164,148165],"class_list":["post-6781","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-countway-library-harvard-medical-school","tag-dogs","tag-julio-mario-santo-domingo-collection","tag-legal-ramifications","tag-medical-jurisprudence","tag-poisons","tag-rabies","tag-vipers"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s5TUly-poisons","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/houghtonmodern\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6781","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/houghtonmodern\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/houghtonmodern\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/houghtonmodern\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4490"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/houghtonmodern\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6781"}],"version-history":[{"count":22,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/houghtonmodern\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6781\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6926,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/houghtonmodern\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6781\/revisions\/6926"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/houghtonmodern\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6781"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/houghtonmodern\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6781"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/houghtonmodern\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6781"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}