WILD ANIMALS IN CAPTIVITY 
search for knowledge, this dangerous custom, without fear 
or injury; and, from this experience, I have learned to 
know the power they possess, and the difficulty of ascer- 
taining when they will or will not use it. 
Depend upon it there are some species that have the 
power of inflicting a poisoned wound which is so instan- 
taneous in its action that it ensures certain death, not 
only to any small animal, but to our own species ; but the 
circumstances may vary to so great an extent, not only as 
to the condition of the serpent, but also to the state of the 
creature wounded, that the wound may be severe and the 
|3oison trifling, or the wound may be trifling and the poison 
fatal. 
Endless theories have been started. Pigs are supposed 
to be able to withstand the poison ; it is possible the poison 
may not reach the parts that would be affected by it — 
the fat skin may save its bacon, or the hog may be the 
aggressor, and, by attacking the snakes, startle them and 
thus destroy them with impunity : for bear in mind these 
much-dreaded poisonous serpents are loth to come forward 
— if you want them you must seek them ; they always 
endeavour to escape, and unless injured or hard pressed, 
or accidentally come upon, keep out of the way. 
There cannot be a doubt that a large number of the 
deaths recorded as attributable to snake-bites, if fairly and 
correctly ascertained, are due to causes not suspected. 
- The conclusion I have arrived at with reference to 
the poison of the larger species is simply that, in severe 
cases, its action is so rapid and fatal that all remedies are 
futile, and that a vast number of cases of injury are at 
once taken in hand ; and in the case of but a small quantity 
of the poison (or perhaps none at all) having been received, 
the sufferer recovers, and a wonderful cure is announced 
immediately. 
