262 



KNOWLEDGE. 



[November 1, 1897. 



thought — and I was, I submit, justified in thinking — that 

 j'our readers would understand the statement as I did. 



In his reply. Dr. McPherson goes on to say that if a 

 minute dose (one-fifth of a lethal dose) is introdvxced into 

 the stomach, and is gradually increased, the patient 

 becomes fortified against an excessive dose. 



Admitted ; but very much the same thing happens when 

 poison is injected. I will refer to Dr. JVJcPherson's own 

 words in his article on " Antivenene " which appeared in 

 Knowledge, August, 1895, viz., that " Prof. Fraser injected 

 a horse with one-fifth of a lethal quantity, and gradually 

 increased to perhaps fifteen times a lethal dose," without 

 killing the horse. 



Now, I see that so high an authority as Su- J. Fayrer 

 states that "snake poison is deaiUi/ when applied to a 

 mucous or serous membrane, to tliestowach, or conjunctiva." ■• 

 Again, I find, in Drs. Mitchell's and Reiehert's " Researches 

 upon the Venoms of Poisonous Serpents":! — "Certainly 

 cobra venom is much more apt to kill when swallowed 

 than is crotalus poison. In the rattlesnakes it is the 

 globulins which are in largest amount, and which are not 

 dialyzable ; but in the cobra the fatal peptone is the material 

 which, both as to vigour and amount, represents the poison- 

 ing capacity, and is, as we know, dialyzable. It is only 

 astonishing, therefore, that it does not kiU in every case in 

 which it is swallowed; but, as we have seen, the gastric 

 juices, in so far as they have time to act, are destructive 

 of venoms, and hence their protective agency has to be 

 considered." (It is fair to say that the American experi- 

 ments were not conducted with fresh cobra venom, as was 

 the case with Sir J. Fayrer.) 



The real question is whether an ordinary dose oi snake 

 poison, which would kill if injected, will or will not produce 

 dangerous and even fatal results when introduced into the 

 stomach, /.c, swallowed. I am sure we shall be very 

 grateful to Dr. McPherson if he is able, from his acquain- 

 tance with recent experiments, to give us a definite answer 

 to this question through the medium of your columns. 



With regard to the by-question of the relative virulence 

 of rattlesnake poison, I did not wish to suggest that the 

 rattlesnake was not a highly venomous serpent, but I did 

 question its claim to being described as one of the most 

 deadly. This view appears to me to be supported by the 

 quotation already made from the " Smithsonian Contribu- 

 tions to Knowledge." In Vol. XII., pp. 100, 101, of the 

 same series, sixteen cases of people bitten by rattlesnakes 

 are recorded, and of these four only terminated fatally. In 

 one of these four cases the man was drunk when bitten, 

 and did not apply for aid for two or three hours. I 

 venture to say that if he had been bitten by a cobra, or 

 even a tiger-snake (Xutechis scututus), he would have been 

 past asking for help in half the time or less. In another 

 fatal case only such primitive remedies were used as olive 

 oU, leeches, and cauterization; a ligature was indeed applied, 

 but afterwards removed. On the other hand, two of the 

 sufferers who recovered were bitten in the throat. The 

 rattlesnake is black enough, but not so black as he is 

 painted. Lionel jEmis. 



16th October, 1897. 



• (-♦-I 



BIED-SONGS IX AUTUMX. 



To the Editors of Knowledge. 



Sirs, — Referring to my article in Knowledge (October), 



I am surprised and very sorry to find that Mr. 0. V. Aplin 



thinks I misrepresented him as stating that the robin and 



starling commence singing in October or November. I 



* " Thanatopliidia of India," p. 64. 



t " Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge," Vol. XXVI., p. 45. 



can only say I have had considerable difiBoulty in dis- 

 covering the error, which was wholly unintended. Mr. 

 Aplin is so well known an ornithologist that I should 

 like to explain my position by quoting Mr. Aplin's article 

 more fully, as follows (Zoologkt, 1894, p. 410) :— 



" Some species become silent shortly before they moult 

 in early autumn. They cease singing when they have 

 done breeding, or as soon as their young have hatched. 

 Others sing much later in the summer. After the song 

 has ceased and an interval has elapsed, in certain cases 

 we hear it again. From mid-August on into November 

 the second song may be heard. This is the autumn 

 song. Some birds, if the weather be genial, strike up 

 in November (or even in October), and may be heard 

 all through the winter in mild weather ; but this is not 

 an autumn song, properly so-called. It is the beginning 

 of their ordinary song, which they wUl contmue through 

 the following spring. Such birds are the song thrush, 

 robin, wren, hedge sparrow, and starling. . . . The 

 song thrush I have heard singing feebly at the latter 

 end of September and in October. The regular song is 

 commenced sometimes as early as November. . . . 

 The robin's autumn song is of course familiar to every- 

 body. The broken strains we hear at first are most 

 probably the productions of young birds just over 

 then- moult. . . . We should not expect [young 

 nightingales] to make attempts at singing in autumn, 

 like the precocious young robins. . . . The great 

 titmouse has the autumn song, and is heard sometimes 

 in September and October. The wren sings loudly in 

 October, but this is probably merely an early opening 

 of the regular spring song, which goes on in fine weather 

 all the winter. . , . The starling sings in October, 

 but here again there is a diSiculty in determining to 

 which category its chattering notes and whistling should 

 be assigned." 



I now find that Mr. Aplin distinguishes the late 

 autumn song (the beginning of the spring song) from the 

 true autumn song ; but I do not see how this can be done 

 in regard to the robin, or the starling, or the thrush, wren, 

 hedge sparrow, great titmouse, or skylark, all of which sing 

 from the time of " striking up " in July, August, or later, 

 tiU the spring, unless silenced by cold. 



With regard to my suggestion that the willow wrens of 

 different districts may sing at different periods, Mr. C. B. 

 MofTat writes fi-om Ballyhyland, Enniscorthy, Co. Wexford, 

 that the spring song of these birds in his neighbourhood is 

 sometimes continued till the 12th of July, the last dates 

 in some recent years having been the 6th, 9th, and 11th 

 of that month. The autumn song is there only heard 

 during the first two weeks of August, and never in 

 September. Similarly, at Eltham, in Kent, where willow 

 wrens swarm, I did not once hear their song in September. 

 So few, indeed, are the autumn singers in this species that 

 one cannot help surmising that they are birds which did 

 not breed in spring. Charles A. Witchell. 



BIELA'S COMET. 



To the Editors of Knowledge. 



Sirs, — I should be glad to learn if anything is known 

 of the movements of Biela's comet (if still in existence) 

 since 1872, when Pogson thought it touched the earth. 

 According to the period assigned to it, I suppose it should 

 come within telescopic view some time in 1899. Is this so, 



P ^^^^ ■ Kegd. Bainbridge, 



[It is exceedingly doubtful whether the comet glimpsed 

 by Pogson on December 2nd and 3rd, 1872, can have 



