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CHAPTER XVIII. 



SNAKES AND SNAKE -VENOMS. 

 BY A. ALCOCK, M.B., LL.D., F.R.S. 



CONTENTS. 



i. General Zoological Characters and Classification of Snakes. 

 2. Venom-apparatus and Venom of Thanatophidia. 

 3. Treatment of Snake-bite in Theory and Practice. 

 4. Genera and Species of Venomous Snakes, and their Geo- 

 graphical Distribution. 



IN all ages and among all races snakes have been 

 emblems of mystery or objects of dread. Whether we 

 look back to antiquity to Egypt, to Syria, to Greece, 

 to the ancient civilizations of America or whether we 

 turn to the Eastern communities of to-day, always we 

 find the serpent either typifying wisdom and subtlety 

 unfathomable, or linked in some way with the supernatural. 

 Nor has the progress of science, inimical to superstition, 

 altogether dispelled the horror that lurks about a snake ; 

 for, whether or not we accept the Indian tale of 2o.,ooo 

 deaths a year from snake-bite, we cannot but regard a 

 creeping thing that, to satisfy no necessary appetite, may 

 suddenly strike a strong man dead, as something beyond 

 measure fell and tragical, " cursed above all cattle and 

 above every beast of the field." 



The researches of the last twenty-five years, however, 

 have revealed at least the general nature and modes of 

 action of the more formidable snake-venoms, and how 

 their effective antidotes are to be obtained. We know 

 that the active components of snake-venoms are soluble 

 proteids belonging to the class of toxins and enzymes. 

 We know that animals can be immunized to these toxic 



