Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1875-10-21
EVENING STAR
THURSDAY -. October IN, 1873.
Snakes AND Snake Bises-The Non.

G0N9e.
have, when i'm India where have ser,-ei
for upwards az ten wears, been present at ex-
periments with poisonous snakes. The mon
goose ard the cat. can safely aver. AZ airly
bitten, have no more immunity from snake
poison than Any other animal The mon
goose, simply by his greater activity, l.
GRABBED Tn overcome poisonous reptiles. I
viii give one or two instances OF xperiments
u verify the above. at which I was present
The experiments were conducted I'm a bar
rack-room, with closed doors, 30 as not 10
in the presence OF myself and one other gem
tleman. First, o large cobra was set at lib
erty IN the Aforesaid room, and q tame mon
on seeing the snake, at once went toward IL.
on which the cobra displayed fear and tried
10 get away. II was not until the mon
latter showed fight As soon, however.
as the cobra struck at the mongoose, the
latter. by superior activity, seized the
to work and extracted a fang, which
the animal swallowed The mongoose then
released Its hold, trotted, or, TO speak more
leaving the snake to itself for q space OF four
or hve minutes. when IL again attacked the
cobra, without any interference on our part
the same performance as before being re-
peated, and the remaining fang extracted.
The cobra, although so grievously wounded,
on beirg released by the mongoose a second
, mme, attacked IL with great ferocity. The
Iatter animal treated IL much I'm the same
way as a cat would treat a mouse. Finally.
having sgain seized the cobra A. set
10 and eat the head only, leaving
the rest OF the body untouched. This /
MINK, shows conclusively that the reptile
was Overcome by superior activity. Ex-
pertinent No. p A wild mongoose. recently
caught. was put TO a cobra. both reptile and
animal being held. The snake was made 10
larry bite the mongoose, which was then
released, but unfortunately lost sight of IL
was found dead next morning. Experiment
No. was on cat, which was at first lei
loose In the room with a fresh cobra. Both
displayed fear OF one anothcr, and could
rot be brought 10 approach. Ultimately
the snake and cat were both held, aud the
former made 10 bite the latter in the
thigh. The cat showed no signs of being
affected for nearly an hour. IL was then
given in charge TO a native sweeper. who
reported the cat as very sick an hour aud
half after. 1t died within -four hours
after being bitten. Experiments were also
tried on pariah dogs, both with and with
out injecting ammonia. In all cases the
dogs died, those which were systematically
injected surviving from a quarter 10 "A
half hour longer than the others not so
treated. The exhaustive experiments of
Drs. Fayrer and Richards, under the author
lily OF the government of India, think have
conclusfvely settled the point as regards the
fncurability of snake bites. With regard q
moneooses, have seen them put 10 flight
snakes on several occasions, and whenever
the moDgoose attacked the snake 10 inyar!a-
bly overcame the latter by superior activity.
A mongoOse which has been lately fed per
sistently refuses to attack a snake although
never showing the slightest fear In its pres
ence-Ld1d anil WdteT.