“The Viper has always been so remarkable for its venom, that the most remote antiquity made it an emblem of what is hurtful and destructive. Nay, so terrible was the nature of these creatures, that they were very commonly thought to be sent as executioners of divine vengeance upon mankind for enormous crimes, which had escaped the common course of justice.”

Source: A Mechanical Account of Poisons (1702), p. 1

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Richard Mead4

British physician 1673–1754

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