TWENTY-SIXTH ANNUAL REPORT 75 



bites. Our Reptile Department is now generally regarded 

 throughout the eastern United States as a centre for the dis- 

 tribution of serum and general advice in all accidents of this 

 type. 



In the distribution of serum, the Curator has done con- 

 siderable work in ascertaining locations of danger to large 

 masses of campers, and in such areas to place tubes of the serum 

 with local physicians. He has also, without expense to the So- 

 ciety, prepared a booklet, showing photographs of dangerous 

 reptiles, and containing descriptions both of these and of the 

 harmless and useful snakes. This booklet gives clear and full 

 advice of the treatment that should follow the bite of a poisonous 

 serpent. Several hundred of these booklets have been dis- 

 tributed. 



The matter of cooperation with scientific institutions is an 

 important one with the Reptile Department. During the present 

 year this has related to the preservation of embryological ma- 

 terial, the answering of queries involving elaborate details, and 

 the extraction of snake venoms. A large number of students 

 and experimental workers have personally visited the depart- 

 ment and every possible assistance has been extended. 



The Curator personally prepared a series of motion pictures 

 for the annual meeting of the Society, showing the large series 

 of albino specimens now or recently on exhibition, new reptiles, 

 including the cobras, and detailed scenes showing the construc- 

 tion of the Heads and Horns Museum. 



Among the important arrivals during the year were a large 

 Florida crocodile, — over eleven feet in length, — which is now 

 thriving. In June, the Curator went to San Francisco and there 

 purchased a number of mammals and reptiles. Among the latter 

 were a particularly fine black-tailed python and a regal python, 

 each slightly over twenty feet in length. Thanks to the gen- 

 erous and diligent cooperation of the officers of the railways con- 

 cerned, these specimens were brought east as baggage, thus 

 making the journey in four days and arriving at the Park in 

 perfect condition. A cable message was dispatched from San 

 Francisco, arranging the purchase (in Singapore) of a huge 

 king cobra — the first specimen of the kind that we had secured 

 in a number of years. 



