ZOOLOGY. 371 



These fangs are very hard, sharp, and crooked, like the claws of a cat, 

 and hooked backward with a hollow from the base to near the point. I 

 have occasionally seen a thin slit of bone divide this hollow, making two. 

 At their base is found a small sac, containing two or three drops of venom, 

 which resembles thin honey. The sac is so connected with the cavity of 

 the fang during its erection that a slight upward pressure forces the venom 

 into the fang at its base, and it makes its exit at a small slit or opening 

 near the point with considerable force ; thus it is carried to the bottom of 

 any wound made by the fang. Unless the fangs are erected for battle, 

 they lie concealed in the upper part of the mouth, sunk between the ex- 

 ternal and internal jaw bones, somewhat like a penknife blade shot up 

 in its handle, where they are covered by a fold of membrane, which en- 

 closes them like a sheath ; this is the vagina dentis. There can be no 

 doubt that these fangs are frequently broken off or shed, as the head grows 

 broader, to make room for new ones nearer the verge of the mouth ; for, 

 within the vagina dentis of a very large crotalus horridus, I found no less 

 than five fangs on each side in all stages of formation the smallest in a 

 half- pulpy or cartilaginous state, the next something harder, the third 

 still more perfect, and so on to the main, well-set, perfect fang. Each of 

 these teeth had a well-defined cavity like the main one. Three fangs on 

 each side were frequently found in copperheads, vipers, and others. 



The process of robbing serpents of their venom is easily accomplished 

 by the aid of chloroform, a few drops of which stupefies them. If, while 

 they are under its influence, they are carefully seized by the neck, and 

 the vagina dentis held out of the way by an assistant with a pair of 

 forceps, and the fang be erected and gently pressed upwards, the venom 

 will be seen issuing from the fang and dropping from its point. It may 

 then be absorbed by a bit of sponge, or caught in a vial, or on the 

 point of a lancet. After robbing several serpents in this manner, they 

 were found, after two days, to be as highly charged as ever with venom of 

 equal intensity with that first taken. 



During the process of robbing several species of serpents, I inoculated 

 several small but vigorous and perfectly healthy vegetables with the point 

 of a lancet well charged with venom. The next day they were withered 

 and dead, looking as though they had been scathed with lightning. In 

 attempting to preserve a few drops of venom, for future experiments, in a 

 small vial with two or three parts of alcohol, it was found in a short time 

 to have lost its venomous properties. But after mixing the venom with 

 aqua ammonia, or spirits of turpentine, or oil of peppermint, or of cinna- 

 mon, or of cloves, or with nitric or sulphuric acid, it still seemed to act with 

 undiminished energy. It is best preserved, however, for future use, by 

 trituration with refined sugar or sugar of milk. 



A very fine large cotton-mouth snake, being captured by putting a 

 shoestring around him, became excessively ferocious, striking at even the 

 crack of a small riding whip. Finding himself a prisoner without hope 

 of escape, he turned his deadly weapons on his own body, striking re- 



