January 1, 1895.] 



KNOWLEDGE. 



\f^ AN ILLUSTRATED «^^ 



MAGAZINE OF SCIENCE 



SIMPLY WORDED— EXACTLY DESCRIBED 



PiOE 

 1 



LONDON: JAN UA III' 1, i.s.9J. 



CONTENTS. 



Serpent-Feeding. By Dr. Arthtb STRADi.iyc, C.M.Z.S. 



Spots and Stnipes in Mammals. By R. Ltdekkeh, 

 B.A.Cantab., F.R.S 



Surrey: its Geological Structure, By Prof. J. Logan 



LOBLET, F.G-.S. 



The Construction of the Visible Universe. By .T. E. 

 GonE, F.R.A.S .". 



The New Solar Records. By E. Walter Maunder 

 Photographs of the Solar Chromosphere. By II. 



DE.SLANDRES ... 



Periodical Comets due in 1895. By W. T. Ltnx, B.A., 

 F.R.A.S 



Letters : — W. H. S. Monck ; Walter Sidgkeates 



Letter on Mechanical Flight. By IIiRAAt S. JIaxim . . 



Notices of Books 



Science Notes 



The Ivy : its Structure and Growth, By the Rey. 

 Alex. S. Wilson, H.A., B.Sc ' 



The Scorpion's Sting. By C. A. Mitchell, B.A.O.xoii. ... 



The Face of the Sky for January. By Hehbebt 



Sadler, F.R.A.S 



Chess Column. By C. D. Locock, B.A.Oxon 



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SERPENT-FEEDING. 



By Dr. Arthur Stradling, C.M.Z.S. 



SNAKES in captivity under proper conditions are a 

 fairly healthy, though by no means a long-lived, 

 race. The largest specimen at the Zoological 

 Gardens is the oldest inhabitant amongst the 

 Ophidia in the Eeptile House, the great reticulated 

 python, measuring about twenty-six feet in length, pre- 

 sented by Dr. Hampshire in 187G — the oldest snake and, 

 indeed, the oldest reptile, as far as residence in the 

 menagerie goes, but not absolutely the most venerable 

 denizen of the Reptilium, a distinction enjoyed at the 

 present time by a blind example of AuiphiwtiK minnx, which 

 arrived there more than a quarter of a century ago. In my 

 own vivarium, serpents have survived for twenty-one years 

 after capture or birth in my cages ; of the former, one at 

 least had reached full maturity in the wild state. Of their 

 normal duration of life under natural conditions we, of 

 course, know nothing — no more than we do of any other 

 animal. The struggle for existence must be a very severe 

 one in their case, owing to their comparatively defenceless 

 organization, and the fact that they are exceedingly popular 

 as an article of diet with a vast number of creatures, 

 circumstances which must conduce speedily to the exter- 

 mination of any species within any given area, were it not 

 for their abundant fecundity. Broods of young ones vary 

 from thirty to a hundred in number. 



Kept in confinement, they develop very few diseases 

 liable to be attended with fatal results. They catch 

 common colds, manifested by nasal catarrh and congestion, 

 more or less inflammatory, of the air passages ; they are 

 somewhat prone to flatulent dyspepsia, and at times sufl'er 

 from something closely akin to muscular rheumatism, but 

 from these ailments they usually recover. A certain localized 

 effusion of blood, nearly allied to imrpHia in the human 

 subject, is an afl'ection of more serious import ; and cysts 

 filled with cheesy matter, or fibrous tumours especially apt 

 to undergo calcareous degeneration, may kill, but the 

 presence of either, of enormous growth, is perfectly com- 

 patible with prolonged existence, provided that it does not 

 press on any nerve or organ, the function of which is 

 essential to life. A coral snake in my own collection just 

 now has had a constant succession of small tumours, 

 extending in a chain along the " keel " of its back through- 

 out its whole length ; they are freely movable on the 

 subjacent parts, and are in no way connected with the 

 spine, and I have therefore removed them as fast as they 

 appeared, the creature remaining in perfect health. I may 

 mention here, as a pathological curiosity, that I once found 

 an imperfect skeleton of a serpent in an ants' nest in 

 Nicaragua, associated with which was a large mass of 

 calcareous material, presenting unmistakable evidence of 

 being a morbid growth which had undergone that peculiar 

 form of degeneration ; and it furthermore proved that the 

 reptile so affected was a female. The most characteristic 

 and deadly complaint from which caged snakes suffer is 

 that known as " canker '' — a disease which manifests itself 

 by a thick, white, membranous efflorescence about the 

 interior of the mouth and fauces, and which very closely 

 simulates diphtheria in its symptoms and progress, even to 

 the circumstance that its gravity depends in one class of 

 cases mainly on the nature of the local development, while 

 in another the constitutional and general effects are of far 

 more importance. Canker appears to originate from cold, 

 and is, I believe, unknown in the tropics ; in certain stages 

 it is contagious, and in all it is almost inevitably fatal. 

 An attempt was made not long ago to establish the identity 

 of this malady with tubercle, and its prevalence in 

 menageries was ascribed to the practice of feeding the 

 serpents with birds infected with avian consumption ! The 

 possibility of cultivating the tubercle bacillus within the 

 body of a snake seemed at first to lend some slight 

 plausibility to this wild hypothesis, but it was pointed out 

 that, in a creature whose life-processes are so sluggishly 

 performed, and so tolerant of adverse environment, culti- 

 vations of bacilli may be effected in precisely the same 

 way as in a laboratory test-tube — that is to say, without 

 any real vital invasion. 



Whence, then, comes the great mortality amongst captive 

 ophidians, since they enjoy what is a veritable immunity 

 from disease, compared to the hygienic record of importa- 

 tions from the forests and jungles in other walks of animal 

 life '? It is safe to assert that not one in fifty of all the 

 specimens caught survive — even of those which have 

 sustained no injury in becoming prisoners, and which 

 reach comfortable quarters in Zoological Gardens or the 

 vivaria of amateurs. And this difficulty of maintenance 

 arises from the singular and inexplicable fact that the vast 

 majority of them never feed after capture, but undergo 

 voluntary starvation in the presence of an abundance of 

 suitable food. 



Capricious and absurdly selective as snakes are in the 



matter of diet, it would seem at first as if all of them must 



run the risk of perishing from starvation even in a state 



of nature, when we consider their numerous and apparently 



i overwhelming disabilities. Destitute of hands, feet, fingers 



