586 



THE NATURE BOOK 



During Professor Leighton's editorship 

 of the Field Naturalist's Quarterly, several 

 captures of the Smooth Snake were com- 

 municated to that excellent and un- 

 fortunately short-lived journal. These 

 records can hardly be said tb have widened 

 his distribution, but they unquestionably 

 established the fact that, if field natural- 

 ists knew where to look, and what to look 

 for, their chances of securing a Smooth 

 Snake were by no means so remote as had 

 been generally supposed. 



The Smooth Snake ranges over the 

 greater part of temperate Europe. His 

 distribution in this country finds an 

 exact counterpart in Belgium, where he 

 is scarce, and confined to the heath and 

 pine districts ; in these districts the 

 Sand Lizard occurs also, and is believed 

 to constitute his staple food. It is of 

 interest to learn that our own Smooth 

 Snake (Coronella aiistriaca), or some 

 closely allied Coronella, is common in the 

 island of Malta. We may reasonably 

 assume that the " viper " mentioned in 

 Acts xxviii. 3, 4 was of this species. 

 Both the "fastening on the hand" and 

 the emergence from a " bundle of sticks " 

 would be characteristic, several observers 

 having noted the tendency of the 

 Smooth Snake to cling to anything which 

 it has seized in its mouth, while its pro- 

 tective coloration and prehensile habit 

 would account naturally enough for its 

 being collected unawares in a bundle of 

 firewood. Two words occur in the Greek, 

 the first, echidna, being translated " viper," 

 while the second, therion, is rendered 



" venomous beast," " venomous " being 

 an interpolation by the translator. It 

 will probably surprise some proportion of 

 my readers to learn that therion is the 

 same word as our " treacle," and that 

 " treacle " is in its origin essentially con- 

 nected with snakes. For the evolution 

 of the word (the bearing of which on the 

 use of " adder-oil " for snake-bite will be 

 easily recognised) I am greatly indebted 

 to the Rev. T. Wolseley Lewis, who has 

 permitted me to condense a communi- 

 cation which he made on the subject to 

 The Countryside of October 26th, 1907. 

 After referring to one of the old English 

 versions of Jeremiah viii. 22 — " Is there 

 any treacle in Gilead ? " — Mr. Lewis goes 

 on to explain that the belief that like 

 cures like, and that snake-bite should 

 therefore properly be treated by a decoc- 

 tion of snake, was prevalent in very early 

 times. Galen, the father of Medicine, 

 was well acquainted with this belief, and 

 the name of his system of pharmacy, 

 Theiraca, embodies the popular idea. 

 From theiraca came, by ordinary pho- 

 netic changes, theriac, thciracle, triacle 

 (Chaucer), and treacle (Milton). First 

 it meant decoction of snake, then any 

 antidote, then the sweet syrup by which 

 the taste of a nauseous drug was dis- 

 guised, and, finally, syrup pure. When 

 molasses was first introduced from the 

 West Indies it was found a convenient 

 vehicle for medicine, and so was entitled 

 treacle ; " golden syrup " is quite a 

 latter-day refinement. 



Douglas English. 



A SMOOTH SNAKE 

 in an old skin, the markings indistinguishable. 



