146 THE SNAKES OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
CONCLUSIVELY PROVED. 
These experiments were repeated over and over again with 
all varieties and both sexes of Boomslangs. In all cases death 
occurred within twenty minutes of the first bite; the fowls and 
ducks which were subjected to the second bite from the same snake 
usually lived from fifteen minutes to two hours ; not a single fowl 
recovered. 
The fowls and ducks seemed to suffer little or no pain beyond 
irritation at the seat of puncture fora minute ortwo. Within two 
or three minutes they showed unmistakable signs of collapse 
and with a spasmodic jerk or two would suddenly expire. 
A few higher animals of greater vital tenacity were also ex- 
perimented with, and the characteristic slow oozing of blood 
from the fang-punctures and mucous surfaces was noticeable, as 
was the case with Williams. The animals in every case gradually 
grew worse, and after about twelve hours were chloroformed, 
it being evident they were slowly sinking under the potent effects 
of that subtle, death-dealing venom. 
EXPERIMENTS TO SAVE HUMAN LIFE. 
Some folks will regard these experiments as cruel, but they 
were conducted in order that human life might be saved, for in 
no other way could I have rapidly and conclusively demonstrated 
to the public that the Boomslang is not only venomous, but 
exceedingly so. I can go further, and claim that the venom of 
the Boomslang is equal in its death-dealing power to that of the 
dreaded Cobra (Naia flava) and Ringhals (Sepedon hemachates). 
I forced these snakes (Cobra and Ringhals) to bite several fowls 
by baring the thigh and holding the snakes’ heads between 
finger and thumb close up against the flesh. 
In all cases I made the snake give a second bite to make 
absolutely sure a lethal dose had been injected. The fowls all 
died in from five to twenty minutes—the average being fifteen 
minutes. In most cases fowls bitten twice on the bared thigh by 
Puff-Adders (Bitis avrietans) survived from four up to twelve hours, 
some recovering completely. The majority bitten by Night- 
Adders (Causus rhombeatus) were very sick for a couple of days, 
then recovered, one or two dying after twelve hours. 
