Our Natural Enemies. 197 
feeling of hatred against them, an instinctive and unappeas- 
able enmity, is perfectly natural, and has grown out of relig- 
ious superstitions, Fear, disgust and aversion are man’s 
experiences at the sight of a snake, and there is at once a 
disposition to seize a stick or stone, or to make use of his 
heel, if well protected, to deal a fatal stroke. War to the 
death seems to be the cry between the highest of the 
mammals and the serpent tribe. It is not at all surprising, 
therefore, that the snake, seeing a human enemy, should 
either glide hastily off into the bushes, or, being thwarted, 
should coil itself up and hiss or throw itself forward in 
attack. Man would do well to protect the snakes about his 
domains, and treat them as friends, for they do him invalu- 
able service in the destruction of vermin that make havoc 
with his crops. 
Ants, bees, spiders, and many fishes, animals that are lower 
down in the scale than the snake, it is claimed, show far more 
forecast, ingenuity and architectural ability than it, but asserters 
of such an opinion forget that the snake is never studied under 
favorable conditions. Long ages of persecution have made 
him fearful of man, from whose presence he flees as from a 
pestilence or scourge, and there is consequently no chance 
to learn his better nature. Even man, until recently, has 
shown no inclination to make his acquaintance, being con- 
trolled by a dread which it appears well nigh impossible to 
overcome. Where the animal has been made to partake of 
the milk of human kindness, and has learned to regard man 
as a friend and not an enemy, he has shown remarkable sus- 
ceptibility to culture and enlightenment. Let it be hoped 
that a modicum of the wisdom which has been attributed to 
him from the earliest of times, when he was made the object 
of homage and the insignia of the physician, shall at least be 
found to remain to the credit of science and truth. 
