Treatment of snakes in captivity. 247 



applies to all who wish to obtain living animals of any sort. 

 The amateur will in this way be able to buy at a very moderate 

 price, and will yet give the poor mariner a larger sum than he 

 would probably obtain elsewhere ; and will stimulate both him 

 and his messmates, to whom he relates the issue of his venture, 

 to increased endeavours in the same direction on future voyages. 

 Under whatever circumstances the negotiation may be con- 

 ducted, it is most important to examine the interior of every 

 serpent's mouth for canker before buying it. (The symptoms of 

 this and other diseases will be found in a later chapter). Although 

 this malady is not incurable, it is most commonly fatal, and it 

 will be well to reject all specimens which exhibit indications of 

 it, or to take them only on probation, to try the effects of treat- 

 ment. An inspection of the mouth may be readily gained by 

 grasping the reptile firmly behind the head, by which the 

 quietest snake is generally provoked to distend its jaws in anger ; 

 careful note should be taken also of cuts or bruises about the 

 lips, and of broken teeth, all of which prejudice its value. The 

 body should be felt throughout its entire length for tumours, 

 these occurring most often in the region of the neck or anus, 

 and the under surface ought to be exposed, as terrible gashes are 

 sometimes inflicted there by capture with a sharp hook. Injury 

 of any part of the spine, a very serious lesion, may be detected, 

 even when no external scar or wound is perceptible, by watching 

 the whole movement of the snake's body through its curves, 

 when — instead of flowing uniformly, like water through a serpen- 

 tine channel, with as little evidence of the mechanism of the 

 separate joints — a portion of the backbone will be seen to move 

 stiffly in one piece, and some amount of deflection will usually 

 be remarked just in front of or behind it. Fractures of the ribs 

 (a common result of injudicious use of the tongs) are not easily 

 discovered on external examination ; and indeed tbere are many 

 possibilities of disease and disaster of which the most cautious 

 buyer must take his chance. If there be a choice of specimens, 

 equal in other respects, it is better to select one which has 

 recently shed its skin than one on the point of doing so ; and 

 when a history of their antecedents can be obtained, by all 

 means take one which has been known to feed in confinement in 

 preference to those presumably hungry after a fast which dates 

 from their wild state. 



