224 VENOMS 



his back against the bulge of the red earthenware to hold down 

 the head. This gave him just one second's purchase, and he made 

 the most of it. Then he was battered to and fro as a rat is shaken 

 by a dog — to and fro on the floor, up and down, and round in great 

 circles ; but his eyes were red, and he held on as the body cart- 

 whipped over the floor, upsetting the tin dipper and the soap-dish 

 and the flesh-brush, and banged against the tin side of the bath. 

 As he held he closed his jaws tighter and tighter, for he made sure 

 he would be banged to death, and, for the honour of his family, he 

 preferred to be found with his teeth locked. He was dizzy, aching, 

 and felt sliaken to pieces, when something went off like a thunder- 

 clap just behind him ; a hot wind knocked him senseless, and red 

 fire singed his fur. The big man had been wakened by the noise, 

 and had fired both barrels of a shot-gun into Nag just behind the 

 hood."^ 



From the experimental point of view, these stirring battles 

 between mongooses and cobras only show that a mongoose of the 

 size of a large squirrel makes a plucky and victorious attack upon 

 a venomous reptile of the most dangerous species and of very 

 large dimensions ; but it is impossible to tell with certainty whether 

 the mongoose has been bitten. 



I therefore inoculated a second mongoose with 2 milligrammes 

 of venom, a lethal dose for 4 kilogrammes of rabbit. The animal 

 did not experience the slightest malaise. 



I then took blood from three other mongooses, by tying a 

 carotid without killing the animals. This blood, mixed with 

 venom or injected as a prophylactic into rabbits, exhibited an 

 antitoxic power, which, though evident, was of little intensity, and 

 insufficient m all cases as a certain preventative of death. All the 

 rabbits that received a preventive dose varying from 2 to 7 c.c. 

 of mongoose-serum succumbed to inoculation with venom, but 

 with a considerable retardation (from two to five hours) as compared 

 with the controls. 



' "The Jungle Book," by Kudyard Kipling. London: Macniillan and Co., 

 Ltd. Reprint of 1905, pp. 183, 184. 



