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Transactions Texas Academy of Science. 
then back again, as if looking for an opening; the rattler remained on 
the defensive, and both he and his mate seemed paralyzed with fear. 
Finally the kingsnake made a dart; for awhile I could see nothing bnt 
a tangle of snakes and a cloud of dust; as the combatants quieted down, 
I saw' that the kingsnake had the rattler by the jaw with his mouth, and 
had his body twisted several times around the rattler’s neck; the rattler 
was striking the ground violently with his tail and the posterior part of 
his body, and the kingsnake w r as momentarily tightening his grip by con- 
vulsive muscular action. After a time the rattler ceased all motion, and 
the kingsnake gradually loosened his folds, keeping his mouth hold on 
the jaw; feeling no motion in the rattler, he let go, and pushed the 
rattler’s head with his nose, then he crawled over the rattler’s body 
several times, going from head to tail and back again, nosing the head 
again. Convinced that his enemy was dead, he immediately assumed 
his offensive attitude and started for the second rattler, which had con- 
tinued in the same position during the battle with the first. A second 
battle now followed, the counterpart of the first ; when the kingsnake was 
satisfied that His second victim w r as dead, he glided into the bushes and 
left the dead snakes to me. The kingsnake was scarcely half the length 
of either rattlesnake, and showed neither fear nor hesitation at any time 
during the battle. The rattlesnakes showed great alarm from the start ; 
and the second one seemed too much paralzved by fear to crawl away 
during the first battle. Neither rattlesnake made a single stroke that I 
saw. Both rattlers had their heads dislocated from their bodies, and 
several inches of the vertebra crushed to a pulp. 
The danger of death from the bite of a poisonous snake is, in my 
opinion, very much exaggerated. Of course, there is danger of death 
when a large snake plants a full dose of poison in a vein or artery; in 
such a case the most prompt and heroic treatment would hardly avail; 
but like Mount Pelee’s eruptions, such bites are few and far between. 
For the benefit of anyone bitten by a poisonous snake, and who is 
beyond the reach of a physician, I would advise the following treatment : 
Tie a cord above the wound if possible. Scarify freely around the 
wound. Get as much blood from the wound as possible, either by suction 
or cupping. Empty the stomach with an emetic, and the bowels with a 
purgative. 
In our boyhood, my brother and myself were made the owners of an 
imported bull terrier, crop-eared, bob-tailed and ugly of countenance,, 
but he was gritty, and never hesitated whether it was a rat, rattlesnake,, 
or catamount. I do not exaggerate when I say that this little dog killed 
more than one hundred large rattlesnakes, besides copperheads, cotton- 
mouths, small rattlers and harmless snakes. He was bitten sixteen times 
by large rattlers, when my brother and myself were present, and we were 
