NO ORDINARY VENOM GLANDS. 139 



Without such fangs escapes would be common ; with such they 

 are rare." 



He goes on further to say : " The natives of South Africa 

 regard the Boomslang as poisonous, but in their opinion we cannot 

 concur, as we have not been able to discover the existence of any 

 glands manifestly organized for the secretion of poison. The 

 fangs are enclosed in a soft, pulpy sheath, the inner surface of 

 which is commonly coated with a thin glairy secretion. This 

 secretion may possibly have sometliing acrid and irritating in 

 its qualities, which may, when it enters a wound, occasion pain 

 and even sweUing, but nothing of greater importance." 



This behef is held by naturahsts to the present day, viz., that 

 the back-fanged division of snakes possessed these posterior 

 fangs only for the purpose of aiding them in retaining their 

 struggUng prey, and as an extra aid in the swallowing process. 

 Sir Andrew Smitli's explanation that the sticky fluid observed in 

 the fang capsules was merely capable of exerting a paralysing 

 influence upon such creatures as small birds and lizards has up 

 to now been the opinion of zoologists.* 



Naturally, I accepted tliis generally current belief, and, in 

 consequence, I and m}^ assistants freely handled these snakes, 

 taking no precautions against being bitten, deeming such to be 

 superfluous until Mr. James WilHams, my assistant, was bitten, 

 and came within a hair's-breadth of losing his life. 



No Ordinary Venom Glands. 



I carefully dissected the heads of several Boomslangs. In every 

 case I discovered a small gland on each side of the head, lying 

 immediately behind and above the grooved fangs. It could clearly 

 be seen that it had a connection with the cavity at the root of the 

 grooved fangs, and that it was the gland which secreted the 

 sticky fluid in the sheath enveloping them. 



The next step was to ascertain if the organ was really a 

 gland capable of secreting any fluid, whether venomous or not. 

 Dr. Robertson, of the Veterinary Institute at Grahamstown, 

 made a microscopical examination of its structure, and reported 

 it to be undoubtedly glandular and capable of secreting. 



* Dr. Calmette, in his recent work entitled "Venoms," says, "The 

 longest teeth (in Back-fanged Snakes) are grooved, and serve for the better 

 retention of prey, and also to impregnate it with saliva ; but they are not 

 in communication, with the poison glands." 



