TEXAS NATURE OBSERVATIONS AND REMINISCENCES. 137 



was no notice of any fresh rat 

 trails in that same cactus thicket, 

 the rattler undoubtedly having 

 "cleaned up" all of them. The 

 same fate falls to the numerous 

 ground squirrels and cotton-tail 

 rabbits in these regions, and, it is 

 seen from these accounts — well 

 known to ranchmen and observers 

 of wild animals in the jungles — 

 these reptiles may be classed with 

 the useful category of Texas wild 

 animals." However, considering 

 on the other hand the harm they 

 inflict to farm hands and persons 

 coming in contact with them un- 



with his right hand holds its lower 

 body firmly, so that it is unable 

 to twist around the arm and 

 manage to extricate itself and 

 inflict, (as has happened), a dead- 

 ly plunge of its sharp fangs into 

 the holder's arm. Then, with a pair 

 of forceps, the reptile dealer 

 quickly dislodges each fang, usual- 

 ly two permanent and two reserve 

 fangs; or if the venom is to be 

 gathered, the thumb is pressed 

 against the opposite index finger 

 and against the two poison blad- 

 ders, when a quantity, often a 

 teaspoonful, of yellowish, glitter- 



HoLDiNG A Live Rattlesnake By ^ Reptile Dealer for Extracting Poison Fangs 

 AND Evacuating the Venom 



aware, especially children, many 

 of which have been killed in olden 

 times, and occasionally today yet, 

 the crotalids and mocassins have 

 to ' ' vamos. ' ' 



The photograph above, which 

 the writer prepared some years 

 ago at a local reptile establishment, 



shows how the reptile dealer held 

 his snakeship to extract the ven- 

 om and poison fangs. The rat- 

 tler's neck andhead is first pressed 

 down with an iron rod or any solid 

 stick of wood ; then, the left hand 

 grabs the reptile between the up- 

 per and lower jaw-bones and neck, 

 as seen in the illustration, and 



ing, and egg albumen-like venom 

 is squeezed out of the venom blad- 

 ders and ejected from each fang, 

 and gathered on a saucer held be- 

 low the snake's head. 



As to treatment, the first and 

 best thing to do in a case of snake 

 bite outside of reach of a physican 

 is to at once apply a bandage or 

 cord, tightly close to and 

 above the fang wound, then cut 

 the fang wound with a clean knife, 

 let it bleed, and, if possible, 

 suck the wound out well. If at 

 hand, immerse .wounded parts in 

 very warm salt water, or still 

 better, in a very warm solution of 

 permanganate of potassium (which 



