ON SEEPENT-WOESHIP AND VENOMOUS SNAKES. 109 



With regard to the destruction of snakes, it is a very hopeless 

 matter. Not only is it impossible to hunt through the ruins and 

 holes and jungles of India, but another great difficulty, I believe, 

 is that when rewards are offered, natives are induced to keep 

 snakes and to breed them for the sake of obtaining the reward. 



Sir Joseph Fayrer. — That would not pay. 



Dr. Beatson. — I have heard that it has been done, and I think 

 I remember reading, in the Indian Annals of Medicine, the story 

 of a collector who, having to pay such rewards became so encum- 

 bered with dead snakes that he did not know how to dispose of 

 them. I fear there is no hope of exterminating snakes so long as 

 India is the country it is now. 



Mr. Leonard. — I was going to ask Sir Joseph Fayrer if destroy - 

 the jungles round the Provinces is for the purpose of diminishing 

 the number of snakes or for sa?iitary purposes ? 



Sir Joseph Fayrer. — For the destruction of snakes, as well as 

 for sanitary purposes. 



Mr. Leonard. — We cannot help seeing that although there are 

 many deaths from snake-bite in India, the Government has done 

 wonders in killing half a million a year in Bengal ; and, while 

 deploring the amount of suffering and deaths caused, at the same 

 time no doubt Sir Joseph Fayrer himself would admit, that there 

 is great credit due to the Government of India for the 

 enormous efforts they have made in trying to keep down the 

 mortality. 



Surgeon- General Cornish, CLE. — We are much indebted to 

 our friend Sir Joseph Fayrer for the very admirable Paper he has 

 read on this occasion. I have only a few observations to make, 

 and chiefly with regard to Serpent Worship in India, where it goes 

 on practically to this day, as I have had evidence under my own 

 eyes. 



In the neighbourhood of Madras there is, at this moment, a 

 native temple belonging to some of the Sudra castes, where live 

 snakes are kept in considerable numbers about the premises, and 

 where there are regular feasts and festivals, when these snakes are 

 regularly fed and worshipped by the people. The cast' is men- 

 tioned by Surgeon- General Balfour. In the Northern Circars 

 there is a town called Cajamundri where I was walking one 

 morning on the outskirts and found a large ant-hill six or eight 

 feet high, which was stuck all over with representations of the 



