186 ANIMAL SKETCHES. CHAP. 



but some of it reached his chin and some fell on his coat. 

 The fluid, he thinks, must have been ejected at least three 

 feet. 



My informant, who handled snakes fearlessly, demon- 

 strated to my complete satisfaction that the poison will 

 exude in viscid drops from the fangs of a puff-adder. He 

 held the snake by the neck, and we could see the fangs 

 erected and lowered. We saw, too, the gummy poison 

 exuding from the opening of the poison canal. I subse- 

 quently made a similar observation on the ring-hals. We 

 may therefore legitimately infer that some poison at least 

 was mixed with the saliva the snake ejected. It used to 

 be stated, however, that the venom is without effect unless 

 it be introduced directly into the blood-circulation. But 

 Sir Joseph Fayrer distinctly states, as the outcome of care- 

 ful experiment, that the poison is capable of absorption 

 through delicate mucous membranes. When the poison 

 of the cobra was introduced into the eyes of dogs, the 

 symptoms of poisoning were rapidly and strongly, though not 

 in all cases fatally, developed. I am therefore inclined to 

 believe the statement of a worthy Dutch Boer (though at 

 the time I confess I received it with scepticism), that a 

 Kaffir on his farm had been blinded of one eye by the 

 envenomed saliva of a large cobra which spitefully spat in 

 his face. 



Even after the death of a venomous snake the poison 

 may exercise its fatal effect. One of the engineers of the 

 railway which was then being laid through the beautiful 

 Hex River valley, told me of a case in point. As not 

 unfrequently happens, a puff-adder had been killed on the 

 line. The creature had probably come to bask in the sun 

 on the warm rail and the train had passed over it. My 

 friend had noticed its mangled body as he rapidly 

 descended the valley in a trolley. Next morning a bare- 



