1 903 Reptile Studies 1 1 7 



tailed statements are made as to the nature of the antidote 

 used. Thus, in the correspondence above mentioned, in 

 the ' Daily Chronicle,' Mr H. Case writes on December 30, 

 1902 : " There is no myth about it. There is no secret 

 about it. Any Indian snake-charmer will supply you with 

 a handful of this little plant, which bears a small round 

 leaf about the size of a clover-leaf, and which grows abund- 

 antly amongst the grass in the rainy season. In the dry 

 season the snake-charmers cultivate it by watering a patch 

 of ground where it grows, as they always carry a good 

 supply with them in the dry season, when they go to 

 perform in front of the barrack-rooms all over India." Mr 

 Case goes on to describe how these men take some 

 Mongooses with them and set them to fight Cobras, put- 

 ting down in sight of the Mongoose some of the plant. 

 He continues : " Should the Mongoose get struck he leaves 

 the snake and runs his fastest ... to the heap of the plant, 

 which he devours fast, until he has eaten sufficient for his 

 purpose, when he runs back to renew his battle with the 

 snake." Mr Case says that he has seen the Mongoose, in 

 the rainy season, search and find the plant for himself. It 

 is hard to bring oneself to regard such statements as the 

 above as elaborate fiction, and for my own part I would 

 not deny that the facts have occurred. But, nevertheless, 

 the great majority of observers seem to agree now that the 

 Mongoose is rarely bitten at all, but that by the exercise of 

 his marvellous agility he dodges the strike of the Cobra, 

 and fixes his jaws like lightning upon the neck of his ad- 

 versary, or springs at the throat. It is quite as easy to 

 believe that such special success in these encounters has 

 been attained by natural selection through generations of 

 the Mongoose, as to believe that the animal has gradually 

 become immune ; indeed it seems to be the correct explana- 

 tion of the so-called "immunity." 



One other consideration must be borne in mind. Pos- 

 sibly the minimum fatal dose for a Mongoose is consider- 

 ably larger than that required to kill other mammals of 

 equal size. We stated before that the most extraordinary 

 variations are found in the susceptibility of animals to 

 poisonous substances, and inasmuch as in very many cases 



