DOCUMENTS 361 



spots spared by the inundation, and the natives frequently kill them 

 in their houses. Thus M. Mariapregassam, the Sanitary Officer in 

 charge of the the Medical Service of this dependency, was in a 

 position to procure for us, at the very commencement of our 

 operations, important doses of venom : it should be added that he 

 acquitted himself of this task with a perseverance and devotion 

 worthy of the fullest recognition. Of the 653 cobras captured 

 between August 1, 1901, and February 23, 1903, 229, or more than 

 one-third, were furnished by Yanaon. Moreover, the cost price of 

 the cobra fell in proportion to its nunibers, and Yanaon paid for 

 its snakes on the average at the rate of 33 centimes apiece; while 

 at Chandarnagar and Pondicherry the snake-charmers frequently 

 received 1 rupee (1 franc 67 centimes) per reptile, though it is 

 true that even this was an extremely poor remuneration, when we 

 consider the risk of the calling. 



Again, owing to the limited amount of our grants, we were 

 obhged to restrict our expenditure, regulating the purchase-price 

 of the snakes according to the quantity of venom collected. Thus 

 at Pondicherry, having observed that each cobra yielded on an 

 average twenty drops of venom, we fixed the value of two drops at 

 one /anon (one-eighth of a rupee), never more. In this way it was 

 decidedly to the snake-charmer's interest to bring us fresh snakes, 

 and not such as had been previously deprived of their venom. 



In spite of this new regulation, snakes continued to pour into 

 the hospital, and several were repeatedly brought to us at the same 

 time ; in October and November, 1902, the figure 9 appears three 

 times in our statistics. 



The combined reslilts of the snake-harvest at our five settle- 

 ments, from August 1, 1901, to February 23, 1903, are shown in 

 following table : — 



-.T ■, c c Quantity of Average weight . „ • „ Average price 



Number of Sum ^ •' . -, ° ° Average price ^r , „° .-5^,„ 



, J , venom of dry venom f tu u „ oi 1 gramme 



cobras expended ^^llected per cobra of the cobia ^f venom 



653 K. 446 242 0-37 R. 0.68 R. 1.84 



grammes gramme (1.13 fr.) (3.07 fr.) 



