616 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XL 



up at once, dilating his hood, and threw himself furiously upon the 

 little carnivore which, eluding him with agility, avoided his attack and 

 took refuge, frightened for the moment, in a corner of the cage. But 

 recovering quickly from his stupor, the mongoose, just at the moment 

 when the cobra was preparing to fall upon him again, threw himself 

 open-jawed upon the head of the reptile, bit his upper jaw vigorously, 

 and crushed his head in a few seconds. 



From the experimental point of view, this battle, as stirring as it 

 was rapid, did not teach us much, except the fact that a mongoose, the 

 size of a large squirrel, can easily make an end of a cobra two metres 

 in length. It was impossible to know for certain whether the mon- 

 goose had been bitten by the reptile. 



I then inoculated a second mongoose with one millegr. of venom (a 

 dose fatal in three hours to a rabbit of two kilogrs.) ; the animal resisted 

 perfectly this inoculation, and did not experience the least discomfort. 



I then took blood from three other mongooses by tying a carotid 

 without killing them. This blood either mixed with venom or inject- 

 ed preventively into rabbits has a decided antitoxic power, but insuffi- 

 cient to protect the animals with certainty from death. All the 

 rabbits which received a preventive dose varying from 2 to 7cc. of 

 mongoose serum succumbed to the inoculation of venom, but consider- 

 acly later than the control animals. 



I attempted to determine the limit of tolerance of the mongoose 

 with regard to the venom. Two of these animals which had never been 

 in contact with snakes in the laboratory, and which had never been 

 inoculated, received one a dose of venom four times fatal, the other a 

 dose six times fatal to a rabbit. The first was not ill, the second was 

 uneasy for two days and then recovered. 



A third mongoose into which I injected eight times the dose fatal to 

 a rabbit succumbed in twelve hour3. 



The mongoose of the Antilles is, then, but little sensitive to the 

 venom j it is able to bear without discomfort very considerable doses 

 relatively to its size, but its immunity is not absolute. If it generally 

 triumphs in its struggles with venomous snakes, it is chiefly due to 

 the extreme agility with which it is endowed. 



India is known as the country par excellence of snake charmers. 

 An entire caste of individuals is found there called Mai, whose calling 



