112 NATURE STUDY. 



must be adders. The old country adder is poisonous. 

 Therefore these must be ; and the majority of the children 

 of this enlightened countrj^ are brought up to believe that 

 if not all snakes, at least these two are deadly. The fab- 

 led power to sting has also been kept alive and active in 

 yarn and gossip, until but one thing, a rabid dog, is con- 

 sidered more dreadful than a snake. Within a few weeks, 

 in this year of our lyord, ninteen hundred and two, I have 

 been told in all soberness of a man who chanced to step on 

 an adder, which immediately threw up its tail and stung 

 him on the foot. I have forgotten whether the man died 

 or not. I presume he did. He probabl}^ followed Anani- 

 ias. 



Recently a daily newspaper printed the following item, 

 with headlines more frightful than the text itself : 



A ten year old daughter of Fred Andrews, a farmer residing in 

 the Gore district, in the town of Warner, was bitten by an adder, 

 while picking strawberries in a field near her home, a few days ago 

 and is in a serious condition as the result. Beginning with a vio- 

 lent swelling of the injured limb, her whole body is now swollen, 

 and she has been attacked with frequent spasms. Book scientists 

 claim that the adder, a checkered snake common in the fields of our 

 state, is not poisonous, but this is the second case, in that vicinity, 

 where the bite of this variety of snake has been followed by serious 

 results. 



A farmer in the town of Newbury was bitten in the foot by an ad- 

 der a few years ago and showed signs of poison similar to those ex- 

 hibited by the Andrews girl. Physicians saved him at the time, but 

 he remained in poor health for a year or two and died. 



The story would not have been worth following up if it 

 were not that such accounts perpetuate the unnecessary- 

 horror that people have of snakes. The case was investi- 

 gated and it was found that the girl was stung by some- 

 thing. She did not know what but supposed it was a snake. 

 There was some swelling on the ankle near the sting and 

 portions of the body were spotted. The latter symptom, 

 which may be caused by anything which disturbs the cir- 



