The Oxford intelligencer., 1860-09-19
From Dickens Household Words.
Poisonous serpents.

On the morning Of Wednesday, the twenty
first of October, one of the keepers Of the well
known and attractive collection of living reptiles
in the Geological Gardens, Regents Park, was
bitten by Cobra-de- Capello, and died
An animal devoid of limbs, no bigger than a
common eel, did, with tooth infiicting wound
like needle prick, slay man in full health and
in the prime Of life.
This, when one comes to think oft is an as
founding instance Of the potency Of the compen-
sations awarded by Nature to the weak and
seemingly defenseless, and least finished Of her
creatures yet the selfstyled lord of creation
b as so often fallen a victim to similar insidious
assaults, that he has come to regard the whole
race of serpents with an instructive fear and
disgust .... ..........
What is the weapon that in so small com
pass hides such deadly forces The comparative
anatomists give the following analysis of it: 1t
consists of the instrument that pierces, viz: the
tooth or "poison fang;" the movable stock or
handle in which the piercer is fixed called the
jaw; the muscles or moving powers of the jaw /;
the bag containing the lethal ammunition, called
the "poison-sac the pipe which carries the
venom into the tooth or "poison-duct; and
the squeezer or muscle that drives the venom
from the bag, along the duct through the tooth,
into the wound which il innicts The poison
fang, in order to be adapted to perform its share
in the complex machinery, differs much from
ordinary teeth and well merits its special name
Ifthe reader be familiar with the form of sim
pie piercing tooth, as, for example, the long
fang in dog, whence, indeed, the name canine
given to such teeth-a sists OF hard pointed,
long and slender cone, with hollow base-and
and if he were to suppose such slender and
rarity hollow cone to be rolled out fiat, the
edges then bent towards each other, and solder
ed together, so as to form a canal open at both
ends, he would have good idea of the general
form and structure ofa poison-fang. The edges
Of the fattened tooth, which we have supposed
to be so approximated, are bent round the end
of the poison duct which closely adheres to and
lines the canal, and the line Of union Of the two
edges runs along the front and convex side of
the slightly curved fang. The basal aperture of
the poison-canal is oblique and its opposite or
terminal outlet is still moro so; presenting the
form of a narrow ellipitical longitudinal fssure
at short distance from the fang's point; that is
left solid and entire, and fit for the purpose of
perforation. A fine hair can be passed through
the canal of the poison-fang of the cobra. The
tooth, so modified in the venomous serpents, is
not implanted in socket like ordinary teeth,
but is firmly soldcred-so to speak-to the jaw
bone, which commonly has no other tooth to
support, and is sngularly modified in size and
shape to allow of the movements requisite for
the deep plunge of the tooth into the object
aimed at. 1t is only the upper jaw that is so
armed; and this, instead of being wedged i'm
moyably, as in most other animals, between
other bones of the face or muzzle is attached by
one small part of its surface to bone above
and behindi it. the joint being that hinge-like in
terlocking one that anatomists call "gingly-
mold, which restricts the motion to one plane,
but allows the part freely to move in that dircc-
ton, so that the upper jaw of the venomous SER
pent plays or rotates backwards and forwards,
having special muscles for those movements,
which, when they push forward the jaw, bring
the tooth attached to it into vertical position
ready for action, and, when they draw back the
jaw, replace the tooth in horizontal position,
where it rests, with the point backwards, hid
den in bed of soft and slimy gum.
The poison-glands and bags occupy the sides
of the hinder half Of the head, and in many
snakes give a swollen appearance to that part,
characteristic of such vcnomous species Each
gland consists of number of long and narrow
strips called lobcs, extending from the main
bag or beginning of the duct which runs along
the lower border of the gland and each lobe
gives offlobules, which are again subdivided into
little cells, where the poison is first elaborated
or extracted from the blood that circulates over
the cells in myriads of little capillary channels
The whole gland is surrounded by kind of
canvas-bag or aponeurosis, as the anatomists
call such firm membrane and this membrane is
in connexion with the muscles, by whose con-
traction the several cells and lobes of the gland
are compressed and emptied of their secretion.
The poison is conveyed by the duct to the basal
aperture of the canal in the fang; and, as the
salivary glands in other animals are most active
during particular emotions-as, when they are
hungry, by the sight of favorite food-so, the
rage which stimulates the snake to use its en-
venomed deadly weapon, doubtless excites an
active secretion and great distension of the pois
on-glands. The wound is inflicted by blow
rather than by bite; the poison+angs when
erected are struck like daggers into the part
aimed at and as the action Of the COMPRISING
muscles of the bag is contemporaneous with the
blow by which the wound is inflicted, the poison
is at the same moment injected with force into
the wound from the apical or terminal outlet of
the perforated fang.
The poison acts with more or less speed and
effect according to the species of serpent the
vigor Of the individual serpent the season Of the
year, and, also, the part wounded. The subtle
fluid mixes with the blood, and is sconveyed with
the rapidity of the circulation to the brain, upon
which Its specific properties operate 1t di-
rect palsier Of nervous action. No sooner does
it begin to operate than the inlets of the senses
begin to close upon the outer world; the eyes
are dimmed, the ears stopped, the tongue falters;
the torpid brain then reacts upon the heart,