THE VENOMS AND THEIR REMEDIES. 535 



having In five different species found five distinct and sepa- 

 rate venoms. The bite of one snake more rapidly affects 

 the blood, that of another the nerves ; while the local 

 and the constitutional symptoms also vary; but 'all are 

 attended more or less with rigors, delirium, syncope, 

 convulsions, paralysis, and coma.' Many of the so-called 

 cures have not been cures at all, because, as was afterwards 

 found, the snakes that inflicted the bites were not venomous. 

 This we can understand from the indiscriminate use of such 

 vernaculars as 'adder,' 'jararaca,' 'cobra,' as explained in 

 previous chapters. Or, if undoubtedly a bite has been given 

 by an undoubtedly venomous kind, it does not follow that 

 a full charge of venom accompanied the bite. The glands 

 may have been previously exhausted, the snake may have 

 been feeble, or it might not have expended its poison. For 

 among other marvels we are led to believe that vipers, 

 perhaps also the elapidce, have a control over their store of 

 venom, and do not involuntarily expend it, that is, when 

 forced to bite. ' Great doubt exists as to the efficacy of 

 forced bites,' says Nicholson. Dr. Weir Mitchel came to the 

 same conclusion in his rattlesnake experiments, viz. that 

 a snake ' is able voluntarily to control the shedding of its 

 poison when inflicting a wound or grasping an object with its 

 jaws.' This accounts for many bites not having proved fatal, 

 and for reputed antidotes having effected ' cures.' Nor, when 

 we come to think of it, does this control of the venom appear so 

 extraordinary after all. The poison gland is a modification 

 of ordinary salivary glands ; and, if we may have recourse to 

 a not very elegant comparison, a person or an animal can 

 simulate the action of biting or of spitting without ejecting 



