POISONOUS SNAKES. 191 



mnsules closing the jaws press upon the poison gland, forc- 

 ing the poison into the wound. The poison-fangs are 

 largest in the most deadly species, as the viper ( Vipera), 

 the puff adder (Clotho), the rattlesnake, and fer-de-lance 

 {Triyonocephalus), but are small in the asps or hooded 

 snakes {Nuja). The bite of the rattlesnake is intensely 

 painful; it is best cared by sucking, freely lancing, and by 

 cauterizing the wound, and drinking large quantities (at 

 least a pint) of whiskey or brandy, sufficient ordinarily to 

 produce insensibility. Deaths from the bite of rattlesnakes 

 are not common, while in India it is estimated that several 

 thousand people annually die from the bite of the cobra — 

 20,000 dying each year from the bite of snakes and the 

 attacks of wild beasts.* The "rattle" of the rattlesnake is 

 a horny appendage formed of buttonlike compartments; 

 the sound made by the rattle, which has been compared by 

 some to the stridiilation of a Carolina locust, or of the 

 Cicada, is an alarm note, warning the intruder; the rattle 

 is sprung before the snake strikes. Allied to this snake is 

 the copperhead {Ancistrodon contortrix Linn.) and the 

 black mocassin {Anciftrodon piscivorus Linn.) In the 

 water-snakes the tails are laterally compressed, while the 

 poison-fangs are small. These snakes are not much over a 

 metre in length, and live far from land in the East Indian 

 seas. 



* III 1880 the deatlis in India reported as from snake bite were 

 19,060; and 212,776 snalves were liilled at a cost of over .|;4500 in re- 

 wards. Tlie next year (1881) tliere were fatally bitten 18,610 people! 

 and 254,968 snakes were destroyed at a cost of nearlj' $5000. 



The snakes whicli do the mischief are, according to Payrer, the 

 cobra, the Buugarus coeiuleus or kiait, tlie echis, and the daboia or 

 Russell's viper, all of which are most conspicuous snakes, and easily 

 identified. Tliere are others, such as Bungarus fasciatus, Ophio- 

 phagiis elaps, which are dangerous, but comparatively rare, and 

 seldom bite men; while the hydrophidoe, being confined to the sea or 

 estuaries, are, though very poisonous, not so dangerous to man, and 

 the Irimeresuri, which are holh uncommon and at the same time are 

 not so deadly as to endanger life. 



