ON SERPENT-WORSHIP AND VENOMOUS SNAKES. Ill 



tion on Serpent "Worship and the whole history of snake bite. I 

 therefore tried to select the most interesting parts of each subject. 

 I am bound to say that I have heard some very interesting matter, 

 especially from Dr. Phene, and am much obliged to him ; there 

 would be ample material for a long Paper on Serpent Worship 

 alone, omitting zoological description. 



Sir R. Pollock asked if some of the cases which were attributed 

 to snake-bite were not due to other causes. Very likely, but even 

 when those are accounted for, a very large number of snake-bites 

 remain, and when I say 20,000 a year, I am certain that is far 

 within the death rate that occurs. Long ago I took the trouble to 

 investigate the question, from the best returns I could get, and 

 made allowance for such causes as Sir R. Pollock has alluded to. 



Dr. Beatson referred to the rarity with which snakes are seen. 

 Many people do not see them because they do not go into the 

 localities where they are. It is chiefly amongst the natives who 

 live in huts and walk about bare-footed at night, and those who 

 are engaged in agriculture and who sleep in huts where the cobra 

 may drop from the roof, as in the case we have heard of, where 

 the man stretched out his hand and was bitten. In the rainy 

 season snakes congregate in dry places, and such are the localities 

 where the people suffer. 



I was much interested in what Admiral Gi'ant said, especially 

 about the mongoose. He is perfectly right in implying, as I under- 

 stand, that the mongoose has no more immunity from snake-bite than 

 any other creature. The cat for instance, is reputed to have nine 

 lives, and it is supposed to take more to kill a cat than any other 

 animal, but I have seen a mongoose and cobra fight for hours when 

 they have been shut up in the same box, and both have escaped 

 serious damage by their agility — the cobra has kept out of the 

 way, and the mongoose has simply been scratched. If you take a 

 hypodermic needle and scratch a person's arm you do not poison 

 him, but if you introduce the needle deep into the flesh and then 

 inject the poison it takes effect, and when that happens to the 

 mongoose, the pig, cat, or dog, or whatever the creature, or man, by 

 the cobra bite, death is inevitable, or if the creature does not die it 

 is because it has not got a sufficient dose of the poison or because 

 the snake has been partially exhausted before biting. All the 

 stoi-ies told of the mongoose going out and taking an antidote are 

 interesting, but they are not true. 



