276 THE SCIENCE OF POWER 



of Animals, by Dr. P. Chalmers Mitchell, F R.S., 

 Secretary to the Zoological Society, London. 



The natural enemy, which of all others probably 

 preys on the largest number of species of animals 

 throughout the world, and which should, therefore, 

 be the most universally recognized through inborn 

 heredity, is the snake in all its varieties. The idea 

 that animals of nearly all kinds recognize the snake 

 with panic and terror by inborn instinct has been 

 one of the most widely accepted ideas in the past. 

 It is of exceptional interest therefore to find 

 that a large series of Dr. Chalmers Mitchell's 

 experiments in the Zoological Gardens is directed 

 to testing the existence in animals of an inborn 

 instinct of fear for this almost universal enemy 

 of birds and mammals in the greater part of the 

 world. 



The first fact established by Dr. Chalmers 

 Mitchell's experiments is remarkable. His observa- 

 tions were concerned at the outset with the consider- 

 able number of species of animals which are usually 

 given in the Zoological Gardens to the snakes 

 as food, the victims being placed alive in the cages. 

 The noteworthy fact is recorded that in the case of 

 every one of the species of animals experimented 

 with, there was observed, to use Dr. Chalmers 

 Mitchell's words, " no special dread of snakes nor 



