Hurter — Herpetology of Missouri. 219 



to a puzzling variety of symptoms, according to the nature 

 of the organ thus disordered. These phenomena make the 

 second stage of poisoning, and with them there is, in 

 finally fatal cases, a continuous and increasing damage to 

 the nerve centers that keep us alive by energizing the mus- 

 cles which move the chest walls and so give rise to the 

 filling and emptying of the lungs. The animal bitten per- 

 ishes by slow suffocation. 



**The deadly apothecary does not succumb to its own 

 drug, but other snakes readily succumb. 



' ^ The popular notion of the immunity of some animals 

 has little foundation. Cold-blooded creatures die slowly 

 from snake bite, and the hog escapes only because it does 

 not get seriously bitten. His bristles, tough skin, and 

 clever mode of attack save him. Little pigs are often 

 bitten and die like other creatures. 



**The size of the serpent, the time which has elapsed 

 since it has bitten, determines also the extent of damage 

 it can do. The nervous mechanism which controls the act 

 of striking seems to be in the spinal cord, for if we cut a 

 snake's head and then pinch the tail, the stump of the 

 neck returns and with some accuracy hits the hand of the 

 experimenter, if he has the nerve to hold on. ' ' 



Dr. L. Stejneger in his ^^ Poisonous Snakes of North 

 America '^ (1895) gives an adventure of Mr. George Cat- 

 lin on the Rio Trombute, one of the tributaries of the 

 Amazon. The story as told by Mr. Catlings companion is 

 to the effect that Mr. Catlin having shot at the head of a 

 huge Rattlesnake had apparently missed it, as the snake 

 was seen to strike and hit him in the breast, where it left 

 a bloody spot on the shirt. The dress was torn open and 

 one of his half-breed companions prepared to suck the 

 poison out of the supposed wound ; but looking a moment 

 for the puncture, he got up, and with a smile of exultation 

 he said, ^* There's no harm; you'll find the snake without 

 a head. " In the weeds nearby the snake was found, close- 

 ly coiled up, where it had fallen, with its headless trunk 

 erect and ready for another spring, the head having been 



