5i6 THE SNAKES OF SOUTH AFRICA. 



have developed full size and hatched within the body. The young 

 would have been born in the early autumn. 



Snakes are often infested with intestinal worms. On several 

 occasions I have removed a score or more of slender wiry-looking 

 worms, three to four inches long, from the stomachs of Puff 

 Adders. 



A mother, even if suffering in a slight degree from snake 

 venom poisoning, should not attempt to suckle lier infant, else 

 it may die in convulsions. The reason is, that the digestive 

 fluids of an infant have not the power of chemically changing 

 the venom. 



Statistics show that the mortality among the people of India 

 in the year 1910 from bites by snakes amounted to the great 

 total of 22,478. This was owing to extra heavy rains flooding 

 the jungles and other favourite haunts of the serpents. They 

 were, consequently, driven out upon the open plains and hillsides 

 frequented by mankind. Statistics show that in India, for every 

 one hundred persons bitten by venomous snakes, an average of 

 twenty-five to thirty die. The average time the venom takes 

 to kill is from two to twelve hours. 



The dreaded Hamadryad {Naja bungarns) of India has been 

 known to bite a full-grown elephant which, in consequence, 

 died in three hours. 



I made sixteen Puff Adders bite the covered top of a wine- 

 glass, each snake deUvering one full bite. The result was eighty 

 drops of venom, which averages five drops per snake. Two 

 drops is usually a fatal dose for a healthy man. Therefore the 

 sixteen Puff Adders shed sufficient venom to kill forty men. 

 When dried, the venom weighed a httle over a gramme, viz. 

 II I grammes. 



There are fewer deaths from snake bite in South Africa than 

 in India, because the population is less dense, not because the 

 snakes are less venomous. As the population increases so will 

 the death rate from snake bite be proportionately great, if the 

 people will persist in pinning their faith to the various popular 

 so-called antidotes. 



The Ancient Egyptians worshipped the Cobra {Naja haje), 

 recognizing that it kept the rats from becoming a plague. The 

 snake was allowed to live and breed unchecked in their cornlands. 

 The effigy of tliis Cobra is engraved on monuments and stones. 



