4o6 SNAKES. 



experiments that were then being carried on in Brazil with 

 permanganate of potash, and particularly should a non- 

 ophiologist be the experimenter.' A snake is brought as a 

 'Jararaca,' a name applied by the authorities to one of 

 the very deadly viperine snakes. This snake — the so- 

 called 'Jararaca' — bears an evil character. It has also 

 very suspicious-looking 'fangs.' It bites an animal which 

 is put under treatment, and though requiring no treatment 

 whatever, a supposed ' antidote ' might get all the credit 

 of a 'cure.' He did not for a moment infer that such 

 had been the case in Brazil with those scientific experi- 

 mentalists, but only what might be in consequence of the 

 confusion in names. And the correspondence on this subject 

 that appeared in the papers during the latter part of October 

 1 88 1 certainly did betray some confusion between the various 

 Jaraj-acas and Jara7'aciiats that had inflicted bites. 



Dr. StradHng had also looked in the mouth of the dead 

 specimen of Xenodon r/iabdocep/iahts, and he informed 

 me that one of the 'fangs' came out in his hand. 'It 

 did not break off,' he wrote; 'and its articulation with 

 the bone, if any, must be loose and ligamentous.' I must 

 not presume to offer any opinion about its 'articulation,' 

 except that its being 'loose' might be only in. consequence 

 of a new tooth pushing it out, or that it was about to fall 

 out of itself My readers will unite in thanking Dr. Stradling 

 for considerately forwarding me this 'fang,' which so con- 

 veniently detached itself in time to be added to the rest 

 of the illustrations, fig. e, presented on p. 360. It will be 

 observed that it is a stouter and less symmetrical tooth 

 than the true fangs ; but it was very large in proportion 



