144 



be placed in a pan of water kept, covered, in some place 

 where bad smells" are of no consequence. The water should 

 be changed occasionally, and after about a month's macera- 

 tion the bones will be ohtained perfectly clean but entirely 

 separated; it is difficult even to save the skull from 

 separation into its component bones. It is said that placing 

 a dead snake in an ants' nest will produce a perfectly clean 

 articulated skeleton, but this is hardly possible unless you 

 can ensure that ants and ants alone shall have access to 

 the specimen. I find that while ants are free enough with 

 things not intended for them, their predatory instincts are 

 hardly amenable to useful application. 



CHAPTER IV. — Snake-poison and antidotes. 

 In a preceding Chapter we have seen the structure of the 

 poison apparatus possessed by certain snakes and the 

 mechanism of its employment. A sketch of its eflfects is 

 required in order to complete the present brief account of 

 the subject. 



When we take into consideration the entire series of 

 poisonous snakes, it will be seen that the toxic effect produced 

 by their bite varies considerably in degree and in quality. 

 For example, in the Australian genus Hoplocephalus the bite 

 of one species, H. curtus, is fatal to human life, whilst another 

 species, H. variegatus, can hardly kill the smallest quadruped, 

 and on man its bite only produces a violent headache which 

 may be averted by simply sucking the wound.* Amongst 

 Indian venomous snakes the Tnmesuri, a genus akin to the 

 rattle-snakes of America are harmless against any but the 

 smallest animals, though possessing a poison apparatus more 

 highly developed than that of the deadly Naga ; the effect 

 too is different great swelling and some pain are the only 



* Gerard Krefft, the Snakes of Australia, page 57. 



