144 THE SNAKES OF SOUTH AFRICA. 



quite well as far as his health was concerned, and I was surprised 

 to hear a few days afterwards that his death was attributed to 

 the bite of the Boomslang ; I had always been under the impres- 

 sion it was a case of ordinary blood-poisoning." 



I have made very careful inquiry into this case, and it seems 

 the gentleman at first showed no very apparent signs of constitu- 

 tional disturbance, but subsequently symptoms set in very similar 

 to those exhibited by Wilhams, viz. oozing of blood from the gums 

 and extravasation of blood into the tissues on various parts of 

 the body, then death. This would seem to indicate that in this 

 case there was a smaller dose of venom discharged into the 

 wounds than was the case with Wilhams, which took a longer 

 period to manifest its effects. Medical men who saw the gentle- 

 man before he died declare his symptoms were by no means those 

 of ordinary blood-poisoning. The medical man who attended 

 him informs me there is no doubt at all about the fact that he 

 died of the effects of the venom of the snake which bit him. 



I closely cross-questioned Williams, and he admitted that 

 within half an hour of being bitten he felt a curious, restless, 

 dizzy, and languid feeling, but refused at the time to own it, think- 

 ing it to be due to some other cause, and believing so fully that 

 a Boomslang was perfectly harmless. However, in Williams' 

 case the symptoms were such as to leave no possibihty of a doubt 

 that he suffered directly and unmistakably from some extremely 

 potent venom, and local medical opinion was unanimous on this 

 latter point. 



The Experiments. 



It now became imperative to demonstrate whether Boomslangs 

 were really venomous or not, as this individual case of Williams 

 would not by any means be accepted by scientific men as proof 

 positive. NaturaHsts and others handle these snakes and make 

 pets of them under the behef that they are non-venomous, and, 

 moreover, in the public interest this question had to be decided 

 for all time, especially so as the Boomslang is one of the commonest 

 of South African snakes. 



The following are the results of the experiments : — 

 A large brown female Boomslang was held by the neck 

 and induced to bite the bared thighs of three fowls in quick 



