2 INTRODUCTION. 



purchase and transportation, need only to be mentioned as indicating our own 

 difficulties. What had been don,e in India, sustained by a government, had to 

 be with us attempted by private individuals, aided by the Smithsonian Institu- 

 tion, without which it would have been impossible to succeed. Our work began 

 in the autumn of 1882, by extended efforts on our part, and that of the Smith- 

 sonian, to buy or otherwise get numerous living specimens of the American genera 

 of Thanatophidese. This quest was kept up by every means our ingenuity could 

 devise, and neither time nor money was spared. We succeeded in obtaining 

 a sufficient number of rattlesnakes, including Crotalus adamanteus and C. durissus. 

 We have had also enough of the Moccasin (Ancistrodon piscivorus). Our wants as 

 regards Ground Rattlesnakes, Copperheads, and Coral-snakes have been less com- 

 petently supplied, chiefly because these snakes are all small, so that to get enough 

 of their poison for study it was essential to have a great many snakes. We have 

 had in all about two hundred living serpents, and among them some superb 

 specimens, which yielded poison in large quantities. Thus one — C. adamanteus — 

 was eight and a half feet long and weighed nearly nineteen pounds. It furnished 

 on one occasion about one and a half drachms of venom. 



It was thought desirable by Prof. Baird and ourselves to examine the poisons of 

 Indian serpents. To secure these the Secretary of State appealed to Her Majesty's 

 Indian government in our behalf. A courteous response was returned, and orders 

 given which resulted in our receiving a certain amount of Cobra venom. A more 

 constant and larger supply was due to the generous and untiring kindness of 

 Vincent Richards, Esq., M.R.C.S., of Goalundo, B. L 



The poison of the Daboia Russettii, the Indian viper, we sought in vain to 

 secure. Government aid and private enterprise alike failed to secure a sufficient 

 quantity of the venom of this dreaded reptile. The other Thanatophidese, of 

 Australia, and South America, still await more careful study, and our preliminary 

 report has already been the means of renewing interest in the chemical aspects of 

 this study in India. 



Such of our serpents as were not cared for by the hospitality of the Philadelphia 

 Zoological Garden, were kept in large boxes, about four and a half feet high, 

 covered on top with removable wire network, and well-ventilated through wired 

 openings below. They were of course furnished with water, and if they declined 

 to eat, were fed at intervals, by artificial means, with raw beef chopped fine, and 

 passed down into the belly of the snake through a large glass-tube. Under this 

 treatment the deaths were fewer, and the supply of venom far better. Probably 

 this method could be usefully employed in zoological gardens, where many snakes 

 are lost owing to their indisposition to feed during the early months of captivity. 



On all occasions, for forced feeding, or for the purpose of extracting venom, the 

 snakes were caught and held in the snake loop, Fig. 1. This is merely a staff, 

 having a leather strap so arranged that it can be drawn out into a loop in which 

 the serpent's neck is noosed, and so held. With this simple means all risk is 

 avoided, and with it serpents of any size and strength to be met with among our 

 Thanatophidese can be safely held and easily manipulated. 



For whatever reasons the study of snake venoms had not greatly advanced since 



