112 



SNAKE-BITES AND POISONOUS FISHES. 



By P. W. Bassett-Smith, m.r.c.s., r.n. 

 (Re-printed from Vol. XI. of the Encyclopedia Medica.) 



From very early times there has been a common belief that certain people 

 had a peculiar power of freely handling venomous snakes, and that a measure 

 of resistance to the poison was acquired. Some of these " snake men " are Dot 

 only described in old records as being immune to the poison, but also as having 

 a remarkable influence over the snakes themselves ; it was popularly supposed 

 that snake blood flowed in their veins. 



In present times it is well-known that some men exhibiting snakes in India 

 frequently rub in small quantities of the venom on the back of one hand with 

 the other, a small part being probably absorbed. In South Africa the Hot- 

 tentots are said to eat the heads of poison snakes when killed. 



Serpents were very generally worshipped by ancient man ; their great beauty, 

 grace of movement, and frightful power of causing rapid death by injecting 

 venom, or by crushing, appealed strongly to the superstitions of the people, 

 who either associated them with death or wisdom. 



This serpent worship was almost universal, and is nowhere more prevalent 

 than in India, where even in the present day the cobra is held in very great 

 veneration, and it is never willingly killed by the Hindoos. In pre-Buddhist 

 times, that is, about 600 B.C.. the gods were represented with a canopy of 

 five or seven cobras over them (Naja figures), and in the old cave temples 

 very beautiful relics still remain showing these. In Southern India a single 

 cobra is frequently represented alone. It is also one of the symbols of Shiva 

 now. 



In Egypt the old papyrus records show that snakes were divided into two 

 classes ; one, generally the cobra, being associated with divinity and sym- 

 bolising wisdom ; the second representing the malign influences and death, 

 depicted as the serpent " Apep," the emblem of darkness, and the enemy of 

 "Ka" the sun. 



In China these beliefs take a more practical form, the concretions, etc., of 

 snakes finding a prominent place as therapeutic remedies. Traditions of the 

 same kind have been passed down from mediasval days to witches, etc., — vide 

 " Macbeth. " 



Many curious powers are attributed to snakes beyond the mesmeric influ- 

 ence they exert over their victims before springing upon them. Thus a 

 " krait " or species of Bungarus found in Scinde is called by the natives there 

 " pyan " or drinker. This snake is said to suck in a man's breath when he 

 sleeps, the result being that he dies at sunrise, with a swollen face, but no mark 

 of a bite on him. No one will sleep on the ground for fear of the " pyan " in 

 this district. The natives, however, admit that it can bite, but rarely does. 



Venomous snakes are divided into two main classes — (1) Colubrine, 

 (2) Viperine. 



