182 THE BOOK OF A NATURALIST 
A third view might be taken, which would 
account for our feeling towards the serpent without 
either instinct or tradition. Extreme fear of all 
ophidians may simply result from a vague know- 
ledge of the fact that some kinds are venomous, 
that in some rare cases death follows swiftly on 
their bite, and that, not being sufficiently intelli- 
gent to distinguish the noxious from the innocuous 
—at all events while under the domination of a 
sudden violent emotion—we destroy them all alike, 
thus adopting Herod’s rough-and-ready method of 
ridding his city of one inconvenient babe by a 
general massacre of innocents. 
It might be objected that in Europe, where 
animosity to the serpent is greatest, death from 
- snake-bite is hardly to be feared, that Fontana’s 
six thousand experiments with the viper, showing 
how small is the amount of venom possessed by 
this species, how rarely it has the power to destroy 
human life, have been before the world for a 
century. And although it must be admitted that 
Fontana’s work is not in the hand of every peasant, 
the fact remains that death from snake-bite is a 
rare thing in Europe, probably not more than one 
person losing his life from this cause for every two 
hundred and fifty who perish by hydrophobia, of 
all forms of death the most terrible. Yet while 
the sight of a snake excites in a majority of persons 
the most violent emotions, dogs are universal 
favourites, and we have them always with us and 
make pets of them, in spite of the knowledge that 
