Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1882-12-13
VenOmous Snakes.


Venomous snakes are those which have
two hollow teeth in the upper jaw
through which they inject poison into
the wound made by their bite. The great
majority of snakes are venomous, but
nevertheless there are more venomous
| snakes in the world than most men re-
ally require.
There are two classes of yenomous
snakes-those whose bite is certain death,
and those whose bite can be cured. The
only venomous snake inhabiting Europe
is the viper, but its bite is seldom fatal.
In the United States, with the possible
exception of New Mexico and Arizona.
there are only three venomous snakes
the rattlesnake, the copperhead, and the
moccasin. All our other snakes are
harmless. In some places the copper
head is known as the fatheaded adder,
But the other species OF snakes, to which
the name "adder" is often given by
country people, are as harmless as the
pretty little garter-snake.
Central and South America have many
yenomous snakes who bite is always ia
tai. Among these the best known are
the coral-snake, the tuboba, and the
DANA blanca. A British naval vessel.
on it's way up a South American river q
few years ago, anchored for the night,
and number of the officers thought
they would 60 ashore, and sleep III a de-
serted shanty that stood on the bank,
where they fancied that the air would
be cooler than it was on board the vessel.
When they reached the ahanty one of
them said he thought he would go back to
ship the, and all the others, with one ex-
ception, said that they would follow him.
The officer who determined to stay
swung his hammock from the beams of
the roof, and was soon asleep. He woke
early In the morning, and, to his horror,
found that three snakes were sleeping on
his body, and that others were hanging
from the rafters or gliding over the
floor. He recognized among them
snakes whose bite meant death within
an hour or two, and he did not dare to
move finger. He lay in his hammock
until the sun grew warm and the snakes
glided back to their holes. His compan-
ions had noticed that the place looked as
If 1t was infested with snakes, but had
cruelty refrained from warming him. The
officer was one of the bravest men that
ever lived, but he could never speak of
his night among the snakes without a
shudder.
In one of the West India Islands
Martinfque-there is a snake called the
lance-headed viper, which is deadly as
the coral-snake. The East Indies are
full of venomous snakes, and In British
India nearly twenty thousand persons
are killed every year by snake bites. Of
the East Indian snakes whose bite is in
durable the cobra Is the most numerous,
but the diamond-snake, the tubora, and
the Ophlophagus are also the cause of a
great many deaths. The British govern
ment has offered a reward for the dis
cOvery of an antidote to the poison of
the cobra, but no one has yet been able
to claim it.
Africa, like all tropical countries, has
many species of venomous snakes The
horned cerastes is the snake from whose
bite Cleopatra is said to have died, and
from its small size and its habit of bury
ing itself all but its head in the sand. it
is peculiarly dreaded by the natives.
The ugliest of these snakes is the great
putf-adder, which often grows to the
length OF five or six feet, and whose poi
son is used by the natives in making
poisoned arrows.
1t is very curious fact that the poi
son of venomous snakes can not be dis
tinguished by the chemist from the
white of an egg. And yet one kind of
snake poison will produce an effect en-
tirely unlike that produced by another
kind. The blood OF an animal bitten by
cobra is decomposed and turned into a
thin, watery, straw-colored fluid, while
the blood of an animal bitten by coral
snake is solicited, and looks very much
like currant jelly. Nevertheless the poi
son of the cobra and that of the coral
snake seem to be precisely alike when
analysed by the chemist, and are appar-
entity composed of the same substances
in the same nrnnOrtinn as Is the white of