TEMPERAMENT.

In his Book on Theriac to Piso, ch. 8.

Book 2, last chapter.

A not insignificant controversy is agitated in the schools of philosophers and physicians concerning the temperament of serpents, namely, whether snakes are constituted in a hot or a cold temperament, since most serious authors contradict one another in their opinions on this subject. For the present, as our own opinion holds, we determine that we must adhere to the authorities who refer the serpentine nature to a cold temperament. Primarily, Galen favors our opinion in many places, when he believed at one point that all serpents are of a cold nature; and Rhasis seems to be of the same mind. Elsewhere, even while dealing with affected parts, he promulgated that all living creatures of a cold temperament, when winter presses, rest in hiding places as if dead due to the violence of the cold, and among these he enumerated serpents. This opinion does not depart from the doctrine of Aristotle, who in his Histories of Animals pronounced that serpents are impatient of cold for this very reason: because they are cold; wherefore he asserts that in winter they most gladly retreat to crypts where there is warmth. Besides which, the same Aristotle established that these animals are voracious and by no means inclined to drink, but that they are stimulated by coldness; therefore, serpents must be reduced to a cold temperament.

Book 10, ch. 72.

Book on Poisons, ch. 1.

Pliny also accedes to our opinion when he wrote that snakes possess little blood, and consequently little and weak heat, and no sweat. Likewise, Grevinus, not to be scorned among recent authors, when he discusses poisons, endeavors with many valid reasons to establish the cold nature of serpents against those who strive to defend the opposite opinion. To omit the authority of the most famous Mercurialis, who says that serpents are cold for the reason that those poisoned by serpents are immediately gripped by a marvelous cold. For this cannot arise from the coldness of the serpent or the poison; rather, it is because the innate heat retreats from the outermost parts to the innermost, and especially to the heart, besides the fact that the innate heat of the sufferer is overcome and extinguished by the poison. Furthermore, there are almost numberless reasons by which we can establish the same opinion. First, if serpents are handled with the hands, even at the summer solstice, they impart a remarkable coldness to the hands, so much so that some, moved by this cause, have offered serpents to be handled by those suffering from fevers, so that the heat of the burning fever might be blunted; which being done, the same serpents afterward remained cold in the bed, like ice. Then we have this universal proposition assigned by the Philosopher, namely, that it is the property of heat to dilate and open, and conversely, it is the property of cold to constrict and harden; therefore, according to this doctrine, an animal having a looser skin, and consequently open pores, is to be placed in a hot temperament, whereas one having closed pores is to be placed in a cold temperament. The skin of serpents, therefore, has such closed passages, and their flesh is so hard and dense, that these demonstrate that they have a perpetual coldness conjoined to them. Furthermore, it must be known, as Galen testifies, that something is called cold, hot, dry, and moist in relation to that which is tempered; but among animals, man is a creature tempered in every genus. Hence, it is to be noted whether serpents are said to be hotter or colder than man. Thus, in the knowledge of temperaments, a universal proposition is read in Galen, namely, that by as much as an animal abounds in a greater or lesser quantity of blood, by so much will it have a greater or lesser abundance of heat; therefore, since there is less blood in snakes, within their species, than in man, it must undoubtedly be concluded that they themselves are colder. In confirmation of the aforementioned, we can add two other reasons not to be despised. The first is that, wherever serpents pass, they always mark out a path with a certain moist and viscous humor; since, however, excellent moisture always has coldness as a companion, hence it is to be concluded that snakes are to be placed in a cold temperament. The second reason is because serpents lay eggs equipped with a very thin shell; wherefore, if they were filled with remarkable heat, undoubtedly the shell of the eggs would be hard, such as we observe in the eggs of hens, since an egregious and valid heat is observed in hens. On the other hand, Pietro Andrea Mattioli, in his commentaries on Dioscorides, seems to resist the aforementioned opinion, while he judges serpents to be hot in temperament; perhaps relying on the words of Avicenna, who wondered that there were found—

Blood increases heat.

Book 24, ch. 20.