218 Trans. Acad. Sci. of St. Louis. 



or fails to enter, or the serpent misjudges distance and 

 falls short and may squirt the venom in the air, doing no 

 harm. 



^'A snake will turn and strike from any posture, but the 

 coil is the attitude always assumed when possible. The 

 coil acts as an anchor and enables the animal to shake 

 its fangs loose from the wound. A snake can rarely 

 strike beyond half its length. If both fangs enter, the 

 hurt is doubly dangerous, because the dose of venom is 

 doubled. At times a fang is left in the flesh, but this does 

 not trouble the serpent's power as a poisoner, since num- 

 berless teeth lie ready to become firmly fixed in its place. 

 The nervous mechanism which controls the act of strik- 

 ing seems to be in the spinal cord. Snake charmers gen- 

 erally have the fangs of their snakes pulled, or they are 

 daily teased into biting a bundle of rags tied to a stick. 

 They are then too tired to be dangerous. After three or 

 four fruitless acts of instinctive use of their venom they 

 give up, and seem to become indifferent to approaches, 

 and even to rough handling. 



V^When a man or an animal is bitten by a poisonous 

 snake, death may take place in a few minutes. It has 

 followed in man within a minute, but unless the dose given 

 be enormous, or by chance enters a vein, this is very un- 

 likely. Usually the animal struck gives a cry, and very 

 soon becomes dull and languid. The heart, at first en- 

 feebled, soon recovers, the respirations become slower and 

 weaker and more weak, paralysis seizes the hind legs, the 

 chest becomes motionless, and at last death follows, 

 usually without convulsions. If the animal should chance 

 to survive over a half hour, the part bitten swells, darkens, 

 and within a few hours the whole limb may be soaked to 

 the bone with blood, which has gotten out of the vessels 

 and remained fluid in place of clotting. What is at first 

 local by and by becomes general, and soon the blood every- 

 where ceases to have power to coagulate. Then leakages 

 of the vital fluid occur from the gums or into the walls of 

 the heart, the lungs, brain, and intestines, and give rise 



