THE ANIMALS AND MAN 



shaped darker blotches on the sides, and seldom exceeds 

 three feet in length. It occurs in the Eastern and Middle 

 United States, from Pennsylvania and Nebraska southward. 

 It is a vicious and dangerous snake, striking vs^ithout warn- 

 ing. The water-moccasin is dark chestnut-brown, with 

 darker markings. The head is purplish-black above. It 



is found along the Atlantic 

 and Gulf coasts from North 

 Carolina to Mexico, extending 

 also some distance up the 

 Mississippi Valley. It is dis- 

 tinctively a water-snake, being 

 found in damp, swampy places 

 or actually in water. It reach- 

 es a length of over four feet, 

 and is a very venomous snake, 

 striking on the slightest pro- 

 vocation. The common, 

 harmless water-snake is often 

 called water-moccasin in the 

 Southern States, being popularly confounded with this most 

 dangerous of our serpents. The poison of all of these snakes 

 is a rather yellowish, transparent, sticky fluid, secreted by 

 glands in the head, from which it flows through the hollow 

 maxillary fangs. The character and position of the fangs are 

 shown in fig. no. Remedial measures for the bite of 

 poisonous snakes are first, to stop, if possible, the flow of 

 blood from the wound to the heart by compressing the 

 veins between the woimd and the heart; then (if the lips 

 are unbroken) to suck the poison from the wound; next 

 to introduce by hypodermic injection permanganate of pot- 

 ash, bichloride of mercury, or chromic acid into the wound; 

 and finally, perhaps, to take some strong stimulant, as brandy 

 or whiskey. 

 The crocodiles and alligators are reptiles familiar by 



Fig. 110. Dissection of the head 

 of a rattle-snake; /, poison fangs; 

 p, poison-sac. 



