_l._ for a moiety of Eclipse, and
subsequently 2,000_l._ for the other moiety--making the whole
purchase-money 4,000_l_."

In the page wherein the above mis-statement appears is another error,
respecting the speed of _Childers_--"over the round course at
Newmarket, 3 miles, 6 furlongs, and 93 yards, in 6 minutes and 40
seconds; to perform which, he must have moved 82-1/2 feet in a second of
time, or at the rate of nearly one mile in a minute." We have referred
to the work whence the above was quoted (_Hist. Epsom_, p. 103),
and find it to correspond with our reprint. The calculation is evidently
incorrect: for Childers would thus appear scarcely to have exceeded half
a mile a minute.

* * * * *

THE NATURALIST.

* * * * *

POISON OF THE HORNED VIPER.

(_Cerastes Coluber._)

Mr. Madden, whilst in Thebes, killed one of these animals, for the
purpose of extracting its poison, which he found in a small membrane in
the front of the jaw under the two hollow teeth. Having collected the
venom carefully on a piece of glass, he examined it with a microscope,
and found it to consist of sharp, saline spiculae, of a reticular
appearance, extremely minute. "Half of this I gave to a dog, in a piece
of meat--it produced no sensible effect; I then diluted the remainder,
smeared the point of a lancet with it, and wounded the dog in the
shoulder: this application he only survived three hours."'--_Madden's
Travels._

MEDICUS.

* * * * *

FISH BATTLE.

Captain Crow, in a work published a short time since, relates the
following as having occurred on a voyage to Memel:--"One morning during
a cairn, when near the Hebrides, all hands were called up at three
o'clock, to witness a battle between several of the fish called
thrashers and some sword-fish on one side, and an enormous whale on the
other. It was in the middle of summer, and the weather being clear, and
the fish close to the vessel, we had a fine opportunity of witnessing
the contest. As soon as the whale's back appeared above the water, the
thrashers, springing several yards into the air, descended with great
violence upon the object of their rancour, and inflicted upon him the
most severe slaps with their tails, the sound of which resembled the
reports of muskets fired at a distance. The sword-fish, in their turn,
attacked the distressed whale, stabbing him from b