GARDEN OF SERPENTS—POZZI. 445 
which cures the bites of the numerous snakes of those tropical regions, deadly bites 
which but lately killed more than 1,000 persons a year. 
He commenced his study by himself; he is indeed a ‘‘self-made” man; later he con- 
tinued his studies at Paris with Roux, at Lille with Calmette, and at Berlin with Koch. 
He speaks French very purely although not very fluently. Indeed he talks very little. 
It was always necessary to ask for explanations from this modest and somewhat 
taciturn man. 
We at once entered the laboratory, a great hall with rows of jars containing snakes 
inalcohol. There were snakes ofall sizes, of all colors, of all forms, whole and dissected 
to show their various organs and with some of them (who would have believed it?) 
full of parasites peculiar to the snakes. In other jars there were horrible, venomous 
insects, enormous scorpions, and great spider crabs. We had but little time to devote 
to this visit, we were therefore in a hurry and Dr. Vital Brazil realized it. He knew 
of a special attraction for us, a snake eater of snakes, the good snake, so to speak, 
which, inoffensive himself, destroys his venomous confreres whose bites are harmless 
tohim. Iasked Dr. Brazil to show us this curiosity. He was prepared for my request 
and very courteously acquiesced. Only the good serpent had already eaten some 
eight days ago, and for a snake digestion is very slow and the appetite long in return- 
ing; nevertheless he let us see. 
And here we saw the good serpent: It was taken from a box by means of a long 
crooked stick, with a handle, which seized the snake by the middle, like a common 
sausage, and deposited it on the ground near us. It was a kind of great adder, about 
a meter long, of a blue color having the sheen of steel, so shiny that it seemed wet. 
It crawled slowly, erecting its flat head, darting out its tongue, and seemed formidable 
despite its good reputation. In order to reassure us, Dr. Brazil took it in his hands 
and twined it about his arms; he told us at the same time the snake’s scientific name, 
Rachidelus brasili, locally known as the ‘‘Mussurana.’”’ The natives and especially 
the hunters have known it for a long time, but until very recently were ignorant of 
its habits and its so useful tastes. 
' With the same crooked stick he took from a box another serpent, this time an exceed- 
ingly venomous one, the terrible Lachesis lanceolatus, the ‘‘Jararaca” of the Indians, 
Its bite in a few minutes kills man or animal. We recoiled instinctively. He placed 
it close to the good Mussurana, and, at a respectful distance, we formed a ring about 
them. . I confess I looked back of me to see whether an open door was at hand. The 
two snakes lay there almost motionless, side by side, and apparently seemed to take 
no notice of each other. Dr. Brazil thought surely that the Mussurana, having just 
eaten his fill, would not ‘‘make a march,” if I may so express myself. Suddenly it 
made a movement and drew nearer to its formidable victim. The latter, as well as 
we, had seen the undulation of his adversary; it also stirred. Did it wish to escape 
or did it rely upon its irresistible fangs? With incredible quickness which told 
plainly that its apparent torpor was only tactical, the good serpent darted its open 
mouth upon the neck of its prey, evidently aiming to get hold of the nape of its neck 
in order to render its opponent helpless. The latter, upon its guard, quickly turned 
and darted its fangs into the body of the other. The good serpent is, however, immune 
to the poison by nature. And see, in an instant the Lachesis is enlaced, twisted about 
in the muscular spiral formed by the body of its adversary; they roll convulsively, 
one about the other, one within the folds of the other, and I wondered for a minute 
whether the Mussurana was not trying to choke the Jararaca. Very soon I discovered 
the purpose of this maneuver; it had seized the enemy lower than it had wished at 
the first grasp, and little by little was advancing its hold gradually until it had its 
mouth up close to that of the Jararaca. Now it had a firm grip close to the lower 
jaw; it had the jaw asin a vice with its little flat head, which looked like an instrument 
of a surgeon or of a torturer, closed nippers of steel. The venomous head, lamentably 
open and as if disjointed in the constant effort to escape, extended several centimeters 
