However, of this you will be able to have a better understanding when you read another letter that I have begun to write to our wise and erudite Signor Carlo Dati(123), which contains the anatomical description of all the internal and external parts of vipers, and other, non-poisonous snakes. You will be able to realize how falsely some ancient authors wrote, stating that these, including vipers, were lacking in certain parts which, if they had observed soundly, they do possess, and in particular, the urinary canals. These, having coursed through the whole length of the kidneys end up, not as appeared to the sensible Giovanni Veslingio, in the rectum, but in a small, but detectable, fissure, situated in the female between the entrances of the two uterine tubes. Inside these canals I have found, at times, some small calculi, just as I have found them within the substance of the kidneys themselves. You will also read that the viper does not have a blackish cerebrum, as believed Baldo Angelo Abati(124), but it is, on the contrary, white. It does not have a mass as small as the aforesaid author would have, saying that it hardly achieved a mass of four grains of a miglio, whereas I have made a mental note that, for the most part, it always has a weight of around twelve to thirteen grains of the same miglio(125). Notwithstanding, in the marvellous and highly subtle tissues of the eye, you will have the great opportunity to philosophise, and to awaken in yourself the noblest contemplation regarding the origin of the nerves, the coats, and the humours, among which the crystalline has a perfect, spherical configuration, like that possessed by the majority of animals which live in water.
It seems to me now, that you expect me to present some fine, learned, and well-considered discourse, relating to you the manner in which the viperine venom dismisses life, and introduces death into the body; whether it introduces it by working through a hidden power, impenetrable by human intelligence; or even, whether having arrived at the heart, and dispelled the calorific atoms there, it cools and completely ices it up; or, perhaps, whether in multiplying these same atoms, and rendering them more lively, it heats it up excessively, dries it, and dissolves and consumes away the spirits utterly, or, to be more precise, removes the sensation from it; or, whether stimulating it by means of the painful puncture wound, it creates a situation such that the blood, returning much too directly to the heart, suffocates it; or, perhaps, that it impedes the motion of the same heart, making the blood clot in one or another of its cavities to such an extent that it can no longer contract or dilate; or, still more, that it causes the blood not only to form clots in the cavities of the heart, but also to coagulate in all the other veins.
You would be mistaken if you claimed this from me, for I am content that this is one of those many things which I do not know, nor hope to know, since, after having performed many experiments to this end alone in dogs, cats, sheep, goats, peacocks, doves, and other animals, I have not yet found anything firm which wholly satisfies me, and which I can write to you as true. For while congealment of blood in the ventricles of the heart can, indeed, be found in some animals which have died from vipers, I have not, found it, however, in all, and to the contrary, I have observed that same congealment many times, but many times not, in animals which have died in difficult circumstances; I have observed it inside the heart of human beings who have died from natural misfortunes, and of late, in a dog killed by a Bantan arrow. Permit me, in passing, to tell you that the dog, half an hour after it had been injured, began to vomit frequently and exhaustingly and, finally, it died accompanied by horrible howls and contortions; not the tiniest lesion was found in the whole extent of its viscera, and the place in the thigh where the arrow had lodged had not altered, even in colour. I shall say to you, moreover, that the studious and clever anatomist, Tilmann(126), did not come to any harm or illness from dissecting that dog, or from minutely handling all its insides for a long time. Yet, once, you related to me that a great, deserving gentleman had told you of a certain young man who had become very ill having performed a dissection on a dog killed by that arrow. It could be that he had contracted the same sickness, but I report to you what I saw, being moved to write only from a love of truth, which prohibits me from believing those who,
A voce più, ch'al ver drizzan li volti,
E così ferman sua opinione.(127)
Present at that procedure were the two very knowledgeable Englishmen(128) who are so renowned; there was the celebrated mathematician, Giovanni Alfonso Borelli(129), and the ingenious, Antonio Uliva(130). If it had been possible to find the authors there, who taught that those who handle bodies which have died of venom place themselves at enormous risk of life, I am certain they would have acknowledged that their suspicions were absurd. Therefore, if Capo di Vacca also had such an opinion, and said that in olden times those condemned to drink poison washed themselves usually before swallowing the venomous drink so that, being washed, they would not remain infectious for those who were expected to perform that function after death, and if he takes as evidence for that the few words which the divine philosopher put in the mouth of Socrates in 'Phaedo', I ask forgiveness of Capo di Vacca that he does not make, here, an advantageous contribution to the greatest and most esteemed writer that he is; in the belief that Socrates truly thought that from his envenomed body there could emerge some deadly breath injurious to those who had to handle it again in washing it, he is unjust to himself, and is greatly so to that wisest of men, who (as is seen clearly from his speech reported in 'Phaedo') was not induced to wash himself because he believed this nonsense; nor does he point out that the valiant men who were present there gave it little credence; he washed himself, rather, either to remove a certain aversion to those common women who had to wash him after death, and who, being very finicky, stand-offish, and guarded, were used, perhaps, to making a great fuss, and raising a stink when it came to a situation where they had to wash the bodies of those who had been killed by poison; or, simply, and what appears more likely to me, Socrates wanted to wash himself because, able to do so himself when alive, he did not want to cause that embarrassment and botheration after his death to the women. As you see that I am not far from the truth, I shall not omit here a transcription of the very words of Socrates, precisely those written in the Greek, and will add to for you, again, as I transfer them into the Tuscan idiom; 'Kαὶ σχέδοντι μοι ὤρα τραπέσθαι πρὸς τὸ λούτρον, δοκεῖ γὰρ ἤδη βέλτιον, εἴναι λουσάμενον πίνειν τὸ φάρμακον καὶ μή ὺράγματα ταῖσ γυναιξὶ παρέχειν νεκρὸν λούειν.' (131)
I do not wish, here, that someone should give themselves to understand, that it was my intention to detract from Capo di Vacca, or the other above-named authors, by even the smallest particle of that enormous esteem in which they are deservedly held, because I do no such thing, nor can I validly do so, and in comparison to them, I am in these matters a coarse and uncouth man. Besides which, in all writers, similar minutiae can be discovered easily, and, in particular, in those who have written much. We are all human, and, consequently, subject to error, only God is omniscient, as was well-understood by the very modest Pythagoras(132) who, rejecting the name of sage for many reasons, adopted for himself that of a lover of knowledge. I praise all the philosophical sects, and find in them all many things which, when uncovered, reveal the truth to us, but I find many others there, also, that are either little, or never, in accord with the truth. I love Thales, I love Anaxagoras, Plato, Aristotle, Democritus, Epicurus, and all and sundry of the main philosophical schools. However, it is not the case that I want to slavishly bind myself to, and to swear as true, everything that they have written or expressed, as does, daily, the most diminutive plebeian of many pitiable sectarians; those who, out of an excessive and, so to speak, rabid love which they harbour to an extreme for their school, do not wish to hear opinions contrary to them, and when forced to listen to them, along with the obvious reasons at once convincing, unable to find another form of safety or subterfuge, have recourse to quibbles, sophisms, and ultimately, to shrill cries; and when one wants them to observe some experiment, place their hands in front of their eyes. I know, for certain, that a profound master of the peripatetic school, a much revered man, in order not to be required to acknowledge stars no longer visible as a truth, or the other curious novelties rediscovered in the sky by Galileo(133), never wanted to apply his eyes to the eyepiece. Another person, also, to whom I said that the small toads which, when it begins to rain in summer, leap about in dusty public highways, are not born that instant from the incorporation of drops of rain water with the dust, but that they had already been born many days previously; and promising to offer to him the correct experiment, and to make him see, and touch by hand, that all that which he believed had been born just then had a stomach stuffed full of grass, and intestines with excrement, it was not possible for me to ever persuade him to be satisfied that, in his presence, I should open up one of them, whichever one might have pleased him most. A better custom was that of Potamone, the Alexandrian, inventor of the school which was called Eclectic(134). To this intelligent philosopher, provided that what he learned was some truth, it mattered little whether it was found in the Ionic school, in the mouth of Anassimandro(135), or in Italian on the chair of Pythagoras(136). Thus, from all the schools, he indifferently gathered the best flowers of greater truth, or at least, of the most plausible opinions. I, too, advance, trying my hardest to imitate him, seeing that I know that every day it will be possible for it to be said to me with good reason,
Or tu chi se', che vuoi sedere a scranna,
Per giudicar da lungi mille miglia
Con la veduta corta d'una spanna?(137)
With all that, in abhorrence of lies, I shall live content with my own self and my natural inclinations, in the tiring investigation of truth,
Quanto più può col buon voler s'aita.(138)
I had almost decided on the wish to terminate this letter, but was not allowed to do so by a new agenda of curious items which are not unworthy of being known. It concerns that which is reported by some, namely, that female vipers, while they are alive, do not generate worms in their bellies. Experience has taught me the contrary, however, and in the past, I have found more than thirty of them alive in the stomach, in the intestines, and further down in the trachea of just one female viper. The smaller of these lumbricoids were of a length and thickness similar to very small pins, such as those used by women, and the majority were the length of four fingers transversely, and as thick as the bass string of a violin. The first were white in colour, the second, roseate, and after they had been extracted from the abdomen of the viper, they survived for the duration of a third of an hour. In my opinion, it is not these worms that Seneca(139) discusses in his second volume concerning natural questions, saying, "In venenatis corporibus vermis non nascitur, fulmine icta intra paucos dies verminant"(140), because it can be clearly seen that Seneca speaks of worms that are born from the putrefying flesh of dead bodies, and mentions bodies struck by lightning which, killed as a result of it, after the space of a few days can become worm-ridden. If I am mistaken in the sense of this passage of Seneca, Mercuriale and Severino were right, as they held that Seneca meant those worms which are born in the bodies of living venomous animals. However, be that as one wishes, it cannot be denied, whether in one form or another, Seneca never strays far from the truth since, as I have remarked, these worms are often found in live vipers, as many in males as in females, and also in cadavers worm-infested after death, even though untouched by lightning. Not only are these cadavers subject to being inhabited by worms when putrefying, but dry, arid, viperine dust also becomes corrupted in the process of time, when by an elixir of life finally, so to speak, it is embalmed.
Continued...
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Notes:
123. Carlo Roberto Dati, (1619 - 1675 ACE), was a close companion of Redi, having become a member of the Accademia della Crusca when he was twenty-one years old. They both shared an interest in Tuscan philology, and Dati occupied a chair in classical studies in Florence. On this subject he made a contribution entitled 'Discorso dell'obbligo di ben parlare la propria lingua', but he is better known for the 'Vite dei Pittori antichi'. It has been claimed that he preceded Redi in discussing the invention of eyeglasses ('Carlo Dati on the Invention of Eyeglasses' by Edward Rosen; Isis, Vol.44, No.1/2 (1953). A follower of Galileo and Torricelli, he published several scientific works, and was close to Milton, the English poet, for whom he wrote a dedication to mark the publication of his Latin poems.
124. "Cerebrum tam pusillum habet, ut vix quatuor granorum milii aequet magnitudinem et quantitatem, et propterea calidum, et ...colore subnigrum est".- 'De Admirabili Viperae natura'; Baldo Angelo Abati.
125. Historically, a grain was employed as a conventional measure of weight, based on the mass of a single cereal seed. Nowadays, I ounce is equivalent to about 437 grains. The weight for the modern American viper brain is quoted as being of the order of 0.1 g. (Blinkov, S.M. and Glezer, I.I. The Human Brain in Figures and Tables. A Quantitative Handbook, Plenum Press, New York, 1968)
126. Tilmann Trutwyn, called 'Il Truittuino' by Redi, was a Belgian who had come to Tuscany, and who was a personal anatomist to Ferdinand II. He taught at Pisa, and lived in Florence in the 1660's, where he conducted many dissections. This particular occasion was recorded by Redi as having taken place on the morning of the 7th of June, 1663.
127. "To clamour more than truth they turn their faces,
And in this way establish their opinion" - Canto XXVI, Purgatory; The Divine Comedy: Dante Alighieri - Trans. by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
128. The 'two renowned Englishmen' were Sir John Finch, ['Sr. Cav. Gio. Finchio Inglese'], (1626 - 1682 ACE), and [Sir Thomas Baines, ['Sr. Dottor Fava Inglese'], (1622 -1681 ACE). Both friends had come to Tuscany in 1659, after obtaining their doctorate in medicine at Padua. Finch distinguished himself at the court of Ferdinand II, the grand duke of Tuscany, and was appointed to the chair of anatomy at the University of Pisa. In 1665, Sir John Finch was made ambassador at the court of the grand duke of Tuscany, and Baines again went with him to Florence.
129. Giovanni Alfonso Borelli, (1608 - 1679 ACE), was an Italian physiologist, physicist and mathematician. Borelli, along with Redi and others, regularly attended meetings of the short-lived Accademia del Cimento, an Italian scientific academy founded in 1657. His major work, which was not published until after his death, was a treatise on bio-mechanics, the 'De Motu Animalium (On the Movement of Animals)'
130. Antonio Oliva, (1624 - 1689 ACE), was a theologian. Arrested and imprisoned for siding with the anti-Spanish faction in 1647-1648, he was incarcerated until 1652. As a member of the Accademia del Cimento, he made contributions in hydraulics, following which he held the chair in medicine at Pisa, from 1663 to1667. Afterwards, having returned to Rome, he was accused of being a Francophile, and was tried by an Inquisition tribunal.
131. The quotation is from 'Phaedo' in which Plato gives details of the final days of his mentor, Socrates, through the mouth of Phaedo, who relates the speech to another philosopher. "Now the time has come for me to make my way towards the bathing-place, since it seems to me much better to be washed before drinking the poison, so as not to give to the women afterwards the trouble of washing the cadaver." - Phaedo; Plato 115a. [Redi supplied the following translation: "Già è tempo ch'io vada a lavarmi, imperciocché mi pare più a proposito bere il veleno, lavato che sarò, e non dare alle donne la briga di lavare il cadavero."]
132. Pythagoras,
[Ὁ Πυθαγόρας], (580/72 BC - 500/490 BCE), was an Ionian Greek who, as a distinguished mathematician, is credited with a mystical appreciation of numbers, and is well known for the Pythagorean theorem. In 'Tusculan Disputations', Cicero relates a story, told by Heraclides Ponticus, about Pythagoras as a 'lover of wisdom':
"...when Leon (prince of the Phliasii), admiring his ingenuity and eloquence, asked him what art he particularly professed, his answer was, that he was acquainted with no art, but that he was a philosopher...(one of men) who, taking no account of anything else, earnestly look into the nature of things; and these men call themselves studious of wisdom, that is, philosophers." - 'Tusculan Disputations’ by Cicero, translated by C.D. Yonge.
["Cuius ingenium et eloquentiam cum admiratus esset Leon, quaesivisse ex eo, qua maxime arte confideret; at illum: artem quidem se scire nullam, sed esse philosophum...qui ceteris omnibus pro nihilo habitis rerum naturam studiose intuerentur; hos se appellare sapientiae studiosos - id est enim philosophos;" - 'Tusculanarum Disputationum ' Liber V; Marcus Tullius Cicero.]
133. Galileo Galilei, (1564-1642 ACE), the Tuscan scientist and astronomer, made important new findings in physics, astronomy, and other sciences, and played such a major part in the modernisation of scientific thought in Italy and elsewhere, despite being tried, and forced to recant his 'heretical' views by the Catholic church. In 'Il Saggiatore', Galileo elaborates one view of philosophy as follows:
"La filosofia è scritta in questo grandissimo libro che continuamente ci sta aperto innanzi a gli occhi (io dico l'universo), ma non si può intendere se prima non s'impara a intender la lingua, e conoscer i caratteri, ne' quali è scritto." ('Philosophy is writtten in that most magnificent book which stands continually open in front of the eyes (I say the universe), but which cannot make itself known if at first one has not acquired an understanding of the language, and recognition of the characters in which it is written').
134. The adherents of Ammonias Saccas, including Plotinus, usually called Neo-Platonists of Alexandria, lived in the third century AD. This eclectic 'secta potamonica' owed its origins to a Potamon of Alexandria, who, from the name, probably had a much earlier origin, since the 'Pot-Amun' (worshipper of the god, Amun) suggests Ptolemaic times. The word 'eclectic' is derived from the Greek, ἐκλέγειν, which in English means to pick or to choose. The school is mentioned by Diogenes Laertius, who is believed to have lived in the first half of the third century after Christ:
"Ἔτι δὲ πρὸ ὀλίγου καὶ ἐκλεκτική τις αἵρεσις εἰσήχθη ὑπὸ Ποτάμωνος τοῦ Ἀλεξανδρέως, ἐκλεξαμένου τὰ ἀρέσκοντα ἐξ ἑκάστης τῶν αἱρέσεων.” - Βίοι καὶ γνῶμαι τῶν ἐν φιλοσοφίᾳ εὐδοκιμησάντων; Διογένης Λαέρτιος.
["Moreover, it is not long ago, that a new Eclectic school was set up by Potamo, of Alexandria, who picked out of the doctrines of each school what pleased him most." - 'The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers' by Diogenes Laertius, translated by C.D. Yonge, London].
135. Anaximander, [Ἀναξίμανδρος] , (c. 610 - c. 546 BC),] was a pre-Socratic philosopher who lived in Miletus, a city in Ionia, Greece.
136. A reference to the school founded by Pythagoras in Italy, and continued by his followers
137. "Now who art thou, that on the bench wouldst sit
In judgment at a thousand miles away,
With the short vision of a single span?" - Canto XIX, Paradise; The Divine Comedy: Dante Alighieri - Trans. by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
138. "As much as can be helped by good wishes", - my translation of the line from Sonnet 14 in 'Le Rime del Petrarca' (1756), edited by Lodovico Castelvetro.
139. Lucius Annaeus Seneca, (c.4 BC - 65 AD), sometimes called Seneca the Younger, was a Roman philosopher, statesman, and writer. Banished by Claudius to Corsica, he was recalled, after a period, to be tutor, and later, adviser to Nero.
140. The line quoted here is the reply to a question asking how it can be known that when poisonous creatures are struck by lightning all their venom is destroyed: "It is so because in bodies imbued with venom, worms are not generated, but when struck by lightning, within a few days they contain worms." – my translation of the line from 'Naturales quaestiones II'; Seneca the Younger.
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