The probability is, that the animal charcoal, when instantaneously applied, may be sufficiently porous and absorbent to extract the venom from the recent wound, together with a portion of the blood, before it has had time to be carried into the system; and that the blood which Mr. Faraday detected in the specimen submitted to him was that of the Indian on whose person the effect was exhibited on the occasion to which my informant was an eye-witness.  The snake-charmers from the coast who visit Ceylon profess to prepare the snake-stones for themselves, and preserve the composition as a secret.  Dr. Davy[1], on the authority of Sir Alexander Johnston, says the manufacture of them is a lucrative trade, carried on by the monks of Manilla, who supply the merchants of India—­and his analysis confirms that of Mr. Faraday.  Of the three different kinds which he examined—­one being of partially burnt bone, and another of chalk, the third, consisting chiefly of vegetable matter, resembled a bezoar,—­all of them (except the first, which possessed a slight absorbent power) were quite inert, and incapable of having any effect exclusive of that on the imagination of the patient.  Thunberg was shown the snake-stone used by the boers at the Cape in 1772, which was imported for them “from the Indies, especially from Malabar,” at so high a price that few of the farmers could afford to possess themselves of it; he describes it as convex on one side black, and so porous that “when thrown into water, it caused bubbles to rise;” and hence, by its absorption, it served, if speedily applied, to extract the poison from the wound.[2]

[Footnote 1:  Account of the Interior of Ceylon, ch. iii. p. 101.]

[Footnote 2:  Thunberg, vol. 1. p. 155.]

Caecilia.—­The rocky jungle, bordering the higher coffee estates, provides a safe retreat for a very singular animal, first introduced to the notice of European naturalists about a century ago by Linnaeus, who gave it the name Caecilia glutinosa, to indicate two peculiarities manifest to the ordinary observer—­an apparent defect of vision, from the eyes being so small and imbedded as to be scarcely distinguishable; and a power of secreting from minute pores in the skin a viscous fluid, resembling that of snails, eels, and some salamanders.  Specimens are rare in Europe from the readiness with which it decomposes, breaking down into a flaky mass in the spirits in which it is attempted to be preserved.

The creature is about the length and thickness of an ordinary round desk ruler, a little flattened before and rounded behind.  It is brownish, with a pale stripe along either side.  The skin is furrowed into 350 circular folds, in which are imbedded minute scales.  The head is tolerably distinct, with a double row of fine curved teeth for seizing the insects and worms on which it is supposed to live.

Naturalists are most desirous that the habits and metamorphoses of this creature should be carefully ascertained, for great doubts have been entertained as to the position it is entitled to occupy in the chain of creation.