OCR SNAKES. 47 



insensibility and delirium. The hand, arm, and side 

 as low as the hip were immensely swollen and 

 almost black ; the two former were frequently bathed 

 in hot water. 



Having gone through this little experience, he al- 

 ways made it a rule to kill a viper when he had the 

 opportunity ; not because there was any danger of its 

 attacking anybody, he knew it was a very timid 

 creature, but then " you might tread on one." \Vell, 

 I have trodden on one, but was not bitten, though I 

 stood on it some little time looking round to see 

 where it was, as my friends were calling out to me, 

 but I did not kill it, and it glided off to earth : vipers, 

 like all other created beings, have their allotted work 

 to perform, though we may be ignorant of its nature, 

 and they are neither sufficiently numerous nor 

 wantonly aggressive to warrant our endeavours to 

 exterminate them. 



One of my pupils was similarly poisoned in the 

 hand this year (1880). Hand, arm, and side were 

 swollen and black, but there was no fever, and little 

 pain ; he was out at play all the time till the effects 

 were gone. But this was in the month of March, a 

 time when the poison would not be very virulent. 

 Some time ago I had a conversation with a sports- 

 man, in which he mentioned that dogs are occasion- 

 ally killed by vipers ; he had lost two very valuable 

 ones himself. Young ones generally die but 

 occasionally recover, old ones seldom fall victims. 

 One that he had had some years had been bitten 

 twice when young, but as it grew older it became 

 an adept at killing its foes ; it would spring upon 

 them, allfour feet coming down at once, and then 



