HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE. GOSSIP. 



31 



investigate the habits of the snake tribe, in which it is 

 especially apparent. Many reptiles of the venomous 

 class, and some that are harmless, when alarmed or 

 angry, coil themselves up in the form of a cone, and 

 then raise the head and neck from the centre of 

 this coil, hissing at tbe cause of their disturbance ; 

 other snakes strike their foe at a bound, using the 

 tail as a fulcrum ; but the majority glide rapidly 

 along the ground until within a few feet of their in- 

 tended victim, and then elevate the head and glare 

 steadily at the wretched creature, who is quite 

 unable to escape, being apparently glued to the 

 spot where it stands, and trembling violently in 

 every limb. 



When this state of things has existed for a few 

 moments, the snake darts forward, and either gulps 

 down its prey at once, or, if it be of a larger size, 

 strangles it in a cold embrace. Mr. W. Wood, 

 in his "Zoography," says that in South America 

 rattlesnakes and other serpents are universally 

 believed to have the power of charming or 

 attracting small animals. When a hungry reptile 

 wishes for a meal, he lies down at the foot 

 of a tree, and, as soon as a bird or a squirrel 

 notices this, it skips from spray to spray in wild 

 excitement, hovering and approaching gradually 

 nearer to its enemy, regardless of any other danger, 

 until it gets within a few inches of the snake's jaws, 

 and is immediately snapped up. Mr. Pennant gives 

 a similar account, and describes the serpent as 

 lying at the bottom of a tree on which a squirrel is 

 seated, and then exercising its fascinating power 

 to such purpose that the animal, becoming stupe- 

 fied with terror, loses its balance and falls to the 

 ground, where it lies an easy prey to its snaky foe. 

 A writer in a recent number of a periodical cor- 

 roborates these accounts, and states that he himself 

 has witnessed the same thing. It would appear, 

 then, that ihe organ through which this fascinating 

 power is chiefly exercised in the serpent tribe is the 

 eye, of all the organs of sense the one most inti- 

 mately connected with the brain. On turning to 

 the structure of the optic nerves, we find that the 

 size of the pupil is varied by the action of the muscu- 

 lar fibres composing the iris. When the latter is 

 exposed in a brilliant light, the circular fibres con- 

 tract, while the radial are relaxed, and thus the size 

 of the pupil is diminished ; on the other hand, when 

 the object viewed is obscured by the gloom of 

 night, tiie radial fibres contract, whilst the circular 

 are relaxed and the pupil is enlarged. In this well- 

 known fact we find at least one of the reasons why 

 the carnivora catch their prey by night, for the 

 pupil of the eye being larger than in the day, more 

 light is admitted, and probably its fascinating 

 powers become greater. But if these powers are 

 exercised by snakes through the eye, there is no 

 evidence to show that other animals do not possess 

 the same property and make use of it in the same 



way, and no one who has seen the domestic cafe 

 crouching down, preparatory to a spring, trembling" 

 in every limb with nervous excitement, and flashing 

 fire from its voracious eyes, can doubt that the 

 genus i^e/w at any rate exercises mesmeric influence 

 in this way. 



But in all probability fascination is not confined 

 to the eye. A snake or a tiger may in this way 

 prevent the escape of its victim, but when once it is 

 caught, and the charming effect of the gaze is at an 

 end, the wretched creature, unless entirely panic- 

 stricken, must experience great bodily suffering. It 

 is known that the nerves contain a peculiar fluid, 

 which is not found in other parts of the body, the 

 composition and physical characteristics of which are 

 very little known. Moreover, we know that wheu 

 a nerve is frozen, whether naturally or artificiallyj, 

 it may be cut or otherwise injured without any 

 sensation of pain being produced. In a late number 

 of the Popular Science Review there is an admirable 

 article by Dr. Richardson, F.R.S., in which he say& 

 that in his opinion the visible nervous fluid " is not 

 of itself sufficient to act as a subtle medium that 

 connects the outer with the inner universe of man 

 and animal. . , . There must be another form 

 of matter present during life, a matter which exists 

 in the condition of vapour or gas, which pervades 

 the whole nervous organism, surrounds, as an 

 enveloping atmosphere, each molecule of nervous 

 structure, and is the medium of all motion commu- 

 nicated to or from the nervous centres." Pain, 

 according to this writer, is the result of very rapid 

 vibration of the nervous ether, and if this vibration, 

 which may be caused by a blow, or by violent 

 mental emotion, is so rapid that the brain cannot 

 receive it, pain is the result. The nerves bleed, and 

 if the " tension of the ether " is too high, it causes 

 unconscious convulsion. 



Thus we see that there is strong presumptive 

 evidence for believing that when the victim is under 

 the paws of its devourer the fascinating process, so- 

 far from ceasing its operations, is in reality doubled, 

 and this holds good, no matter what theory of 

 nervous sensation we may adopt. 



It is true that men have suffered pain when 

 wounded by wild beasts, but then man is a strong- 

 minded reasoning being, and, instead of surrendering 

 himself to the fatal influence, he would naturally 

 make every effort to escape. But, if the matter 

 were investigated, I think it would be found that in 

 the large majority of cases people have experienced 

 no pain whatever at the time, though the wounds re- 

 ceived may have been fatal. I could cite several such 

 cases. This is a comfortable reflection when we 

 remember that during three years in British India 

 alone more than 12,500 persons were devoured by 

 wild animals, exclusive of more than double the 

 number killed by snakes. With this we must leave 

 the subject, in the hope that some of our eminent 



