THEIR NATURE AND EFFECTS. 167 



■while the reward was given. It is, of course, likely 

 that they were brought in from greater distances, as no 

 reward was given in the surrounding districts. On this 

 subject, therefore, there is not sufiBcient evidence. But 

 universal experience shows us that when man has 

 «arnestly striven to extirpate a noxious animal he has 

 always succeeded. Deaths from snake-bite used to be 

 ■common in Europe, they are almost unknown at present; 

 and the same thing may be said of North America. 

 Wolves are now exceedingly rare in Southern and 

 Eastern Europe, where they used to constitute a public 

 danger. It is only amidst a passive population that 

 pests of this kind are tolerated. 



That snakes are most frequently found in jungles and 

 similar places is of course accurate, but that natives are 

 liitten there is certainly not true. The most striking 

 feature in the statistics of death from snake-bite is the 

 exceeding frequency with which women are bitten. Thus, 

 in Bengal, in the last year for which I have the detailed 

 statistics, 2,155 women were killed, for 2,04.0 men, and 

 no less than sixteen per cent, of the deaths were of 

 •children under ten years of age. In other words, the 

 home-staying portion of the population suffered as 

 heavily as those going abroad. But nearly twice as 

 many persons were bitten during the night as during 

 the day, showing still more clearly that the calamity 

 ta^s place, not in the jungle, but actually in the home. 

 The mortality from snake-bite in India does not depend 



