14 THE START [chap, i 



diminution in the mortality from snake-bites in the 

 province of Sao Paulo. 



In connection with his institute, and right by the 

 laboratory, the doctor has a large serpentarium, in which 

 quantities of the common poisonous and non-poisonous 

 snakes are kept, and some of the rarer ones. He has 

 devoted considerable time to the effort to find out if 

 there are any natural enemies of the poisonous snakes 

 of his country, and he has discovered that the most 

 formidable enemy of the many dangerous Brazilian 

 snakes is a non- poisonous, entirely harmless, rather 

 uncommon Brazilian snake, the mussurama. Of all 

 the interesting things the doctor showed us, by far the 

 most interesting was the opportunity of witnessing for 

 ourselves the action of the mussurama toward a 

 dangerous snake. 



The doctor first showed us specimens of the various 

 important snakes, poisonous and non -poisonous, in 

 alcohol. Then he showed us preparations of the 

 different kinds of venom and of the different anti- 

 venom serums, presenting us with some of the latter 

 for our use on the journey. He has been able to pro- 

 duce to distinct kinds of anti-venom serum, one to 

 neutralize the virulent poison of the rattlesnake's bite, 

 the other to neutralize the poison of the different snakes 

 of the lachesis genus. These poisons are somewhat 

 different, and moreover there appear to be some 

 differences between the poisons of the different species 

 of lachesis ; in some cases the poison is nearly colourless, 

 and in others, as in that of the jararaca, whose poison I 

 saw, it is yeUow. 



But the vital difference is that between all these 

 poisons of the pit-vipers and the poisons of the colubrine 

 snakes, such as the cobra and the coral-snake. As yet 



