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other superstitious beliefs and quack remedies above outlined. No 

 snake and no part of auy snake has any curative or medicinal quality 

 whatever, and persons who trust in them are doing so at the peril 

 of their own welfare. 



We recently learned that a family in Lancaster county took a 

 long journey into Schuylkill county to obtain the oil of a rattle 

 snake to mix with whiskey as a remedy for consumption. In this 

 particular instance the person who was afflicted with the disease 

 did not recover, and this is a proof of the ineffectiveness of such 

 quack remedies. 



Queer Facts. 



1. Some serpents swallow their young for temporary protection. 



2. Some snakes play ''possum," or act dead, as a means of de- 

 fense. 



3. Some snakes lay eggs ; others bear young. 



4. Fangs of serpents are renewed or grow in again after being 

 extracted. 



5. The young Black Snake is gray and spotted aud often mis- 

 taken for the Spotted Adder, Water Snake or Copperhead. 



6. Snakes can live a year or more without food. 



7. Serpents often eat one another. 



8. Some species of snakes are beneficial as insect-eaters and 

 others as destroyers of mice and other obnoxious rodents (mice, 

 rats, etc.). 



9. Two-headed snakes are not uncommon. 



10. Snakes and other reptiles are not ''cold-blooded," but are the 

 temperature of their surroundings. 



Concerning serpents there are many things that are true which 

 are as interesting, and in fact as marvelous, as the many myths 

 that are generally accepted. Among these is the fact that some 

 snakes are known to swallow their young for temporary protection, 

 as has been observed and reported to us by several reliable persons. 

 While we have not been so fortunate as to have observed this per- 

 sonally, yet we can not deny that certain species of snakes afford 

 temporary refuge in time of danger to their own young, which 

 run down the throat of the parent. It is not known as yet just 

 what species or kinds of snakes have this habit and what do not, 

 but it is known to be true of the Garter Snake and probably also 

 of the Water Snake. Prof. T\'. L. MacGowan, suporintendent of the 

 schools of the city of Warren, reported to us that he had seen a 

 Garter Snake swallow her young for protection no less than four 

 times in his life, and an Erie county school teacher reported that 

 an old Garter Snake with her family of young lived under a bank 



