Section C— BACTERIOLOGY, BOTANY, ZOOLOGY, 

 AGRICULTURE, FORESTRY, PHYSIOLOGY, HY- 

 GIENE AND SANITARY SCIENCE. 



President of the Section: F. W. FitzSimons, F.Z.S. 



TUESDAY, JULY 2. 



The Resident delivered the following address : — 



SNAKES, THEIR VENOM AND THE TREATMENT OF 

 SNAKE BITE. 



In the course of this .address it is my intention to present 

 merely a synopsis of the subject. The subject of snakes, their 

 venom and the treatment of snake bite is a large one, which I 

 have found has taken a volume of over 500 pages, with upwards 

 of three hundred illustrations, to treat of fairly fully. 



Snakes have evolved from lizards, or lizard-like creatures 

 with legs. We have, to-day in South Africa living types of lizards 

 in the various transitional stages. Some have long snake-like 

 bodies with four small legs, which are almost rudimentary. 

 Others have only one pair of tiny legs, which are quite rudi- 

 mentary, and are fast disappearing. Others, again, as, for in- 

 stance, the Acentias meleagris, are devoid of legs. These lizards 

 are commonly mistaken for snakes. 



The lowest families of snakes are the Blind Burrowing 

 Worms (Typhlopidse and Glauconidse). Naturalists in the past 

 hesitated to classify these creatures as snakes. They were com- 

 monly thought to be lizards. 



The South African Python (Python sebae) is a living exam- 

 ple of the evolution of snakes from reptiles possessing legs. 

 The Python has two horny spurs near the vent. These are 

 vestiges of legs, for. on dissection, it is found that immediately 

 beneath, and buried in the flesh, are the \eg bones, proving con- 

 clusively that the ancestors of Pythons had legs. 



The Python is one of the giant snakes. Its remote ancestors 

 were doubtless far more bulky. The Python and its close rela- 

 tion, the Boa, are non-venomous. They kill their prey by con- 

 si notion. The powers of constriction the Pvthon is able to exert 

 are enormous. A ten- foot South African Python recently con- 

 stricted the body of a lady, causing grave internal injuries 

 although it gripped her only for a few moments. 



Pythons as a general rule, are inoffensive snakes, and unless 

 attempts be made to capture them, they rarely show anv disposi- 

 tion to attack man. The Python is a very useful snake, for it 

 devours considerable numbers of rats, and is the chief enemy of 

 the large sugar-cane-eating rodent known as the Cane Rat 

 ( Thryonomys swinderenianus) . 



