December i6, 1892.] 



SCIENCE. 



339 



the base of the tree for a foot, it contented itself with basking in 

 the sun. 



While lying thus, it lifted up its head four or fi^e inches and 

 gaped. Its mouth opened very wide; but while closing, the ner- 

 vous spasm, only half expended, again seized upon its jaws, 

 whereupon they went wider than before; the spasm exhausting 

 itself at last in a parting wriggle or two to the head. 



So natural was this novel performance, that I involuntarily 

 listened for that characteristic accompaniment, the little agoniz- 

 ing whine so common with the dog, and not uncommon with us. 



After a sun-bath of nearly half an hour, the snake began slowly 

 to descend. His course was as straight coming down as it had 

 been going up; but, now being on the top of the trunk, he natu- 

 rally kept to the outside of the bend. His progress was inter- 

 rupted with frequent pauses, and at times it was so slow that I 

 could scarcely detect any movement. 



When it reached a fork of the tree, about ten feet from the 

 ground, a titmouse came along. It soon discovered the snake 

 and became much excited. Its scoldiing soon brought its mate, 

 when each one, emboldened by the presence of the other, tried to 

 see how much nearer it could go. They hopped all round the 

 snake, now three feet and now scarcely so many inches from it. 

 Had the snake been hunting birds, it would now have needed but 





spot, and busied himself in a way which probably accounted for 

 his moving so slowly before, but which from my distance had 

 been unnoticed. He seemed to be using his tongue as a tactile 

 organ on the bark, playing it back and forth from his mouth like 

 a little brush, running it way out, or dropping it down close to 

 his chin, according to the nearness of the piece of bark under in- 

 spection. It finally turned up the tree again, carefully sampling 

 the hark as it went. It seemed in quest of something, but what 

 could it find with its tongue? when so evidently, to the eye, there 

 was nothing for a snake to eat. After going but a little ways, he 

 again turned down. But all the way, from here down, it kept up 

 that use of its tongue on the bark. When it reached the ground, 

 it glided off as slowly as before. I now stood by quietly, but did 

 not conceal myself. 



The snake had seemed to me to he about two-thirds grown. His 

 not recognizing me as an enemy also showed that he was a young 

 snake, and had not yet learned to be wary of his neighbor's Chris- 

 tian heel. It continued to pause now and then as before, and, as 

 before, I could see its thread-like tongue playing back and forth, 

 licking the way along. But, what was my surprise, at about ten 

 feet from the tree it came down, to see it start up another, this 

 time a jack oak. about fifteen inches in diameter. The bark in 

 this case was rougher and the climbing must have been easier, 

 but it went up just as slowly as before, and, to the height of three 

 feet at least, its course was just as straight. When so high, I 

 was suddenly struck with the resemblance of the gray blotches of 

 the snake to the gray blotches of bark by which it was surrounded. 

 So much alike were they, that at no greater distance than fifteen 

 feet it was difiicult to distinguish certain portions of its body from 

 the bark. To consider tliis a case of mimicry would strain credu- 

 lity. The habit of tree-climbing in that case would be common 

 with snakes, and could not go unobserved. That such a practice 

 is commonly observed, certainly isnot true. Yet this resemblance, 

 accompanied as it was by such voluntary tree-climbing, if acci- 

 dental, is, to say the least, remarkable. For certainly we have 

 here a young snake, not more than two-thirds grown. Could this 

 tree-climbing be the exceptional trick of a young snake? Not 

 likely. Any such performance which a young snake takes to so 

 naturally, it must have begun to learn farther back than its 

 grandmother. 



However this may be, liowever probable it is that snakes are 

 decreed to go on their bellies on the ground, I shall, I suppose, 

 hereafter be looking for snakes in trees; and, on meeting one, 

 shall give him every encouragement to show forth a tree-climbing 

 instinct. 



I should say that at this juncture I lost the snake, and so was 

 unable to identify him. A flock of cattle browsing in the wood 

 came upon us. While watching to see how near these would 

 come before noticing me, the snake slipped unobserved away. 



little dexterity to catch one. But the snake paid no attention to 

 them ; and after fluttering foolishly near for a time, they paid no 

 further attention to it, flew off, and did not return. 



When within about five feet of the ground, the snake paused 

 beside the dead stub of a limb. Swinging its head round toward 

 the stub, it held it there as if intently regarding something it had 

 found. Suddenly its head began slowly to disappear in a hole 

 which I had not noticed. When its head was out of siglit, I 

 stepped quite near. It kept gradually forcing its way into the 

 snag until six or eight inches of it had disappeared. All the while 

 it was going in, its body was shrinking and swelling as if it were 

 panting. Evidently it was cautiously smelling its way into what 

 afterwards proved to be a mouse-nest. Possibly it had feasted 

 before on tender, juicy, young mice, and was now promising 

 itself a repetition of such luxuries. When one reflects that stumps, 

 logs, fence-rows, rail-piles, and the like are at the same time the 

 haunts of snakes and the nesting-places of ground- mice and squir- 

 rels, he cannot but conjecture how often the helpless young of 

 the latter must fall a prey to snakes. Also, it may be questioned 

 whether the economic value of snakes is not underestimated. 



Not finding his game in this instance, however, his highness 

 stiffened himself and withdrew. But, as if loath to give up the 

 treat he had promised himself, he lingered quite a while at the 



CURRENT NOTES ON ANTHROPOLOGY.— XX. 



[Edited by D. G. Brlnton, M.D., LL.D.'i 



Nervous Disease in Low Races and Stages of Culture. 



Among the errors which have been diligently disseminated by 

 physicians who lacked ethnological information is that which 

 claims that diseases of the nervous system, especially those of a 

 hysterical character, have greatly increased with the development 

 of civilization, and are most common in the races of highest cul- 

 ture. 



Both assertions are erroneous. Those intelligent travellers 

 who give the soundest information on this subject report that in 

 uncultivated nations violent and epidemic nervous seizures are 

 very common. Castren descibes them among the Sibiric tribes. 

 An unexpected blow on the outside of a tent will throw its occu- 

 pants into spasms. The early Jesuit missionaries paint extraor- 

 dinary pictures of epidemic nervous maladies among the Iroquois 

 and Hurons. The Middle Ages witnessed scenes of this kind, 

 impossible to-day. 



In a late number of the Journal de Medicine, Paris, Dr. De la 

 Tourette points out the frequency of true hysteria and hysteroid 

 seizures in the Black race, among the Hottentots and the CaflBrs 

 of East Africa, and among the natives of Abyssinia and Mada- 



