Morning journal and courier., 1882-08-21
A SqWee7s From a Boa.

In the summer of 1880 I got nasty l squeeze from a big python in the Jardin Zoo- 1 logique at Antwerp, which laid me up for l several days. I had observed this snake. 8 female, about II feet long, in of the ders, and from the white eff1orescence about her lips knew that she was suffering from carries of the jaw with alteration of the mucous membrane, so fatal to snakes in confinement;
 and having pointed this out to M. Vekemann,
 the resident director, I obtained his permis
 sion to make trial of an ointment which be-
 lieved I had found effcacious in the early
 stage of the disease among my own snakes. Now, as ill luck would have it, the regular keeper was absent on this particular morning, and his place was filled for the time by another from some other part of the gardens, who spoke nothing but Flemish, of which tongue I am profoundly ignorant as he most certainly of the creatures under his temporary charge. l went into the den with ! him, taking it for granted, of course, that he was accustomed to snakes, and gave him the box of ointment to hold until was ready to use it. When I had brought the pythoness | fairly down te the floor, I gripped her hard ! by the neck, which had the effect, as I in- 1 tended 1t to have, and as it always has with snakes, of making her open her mouth. I pressed her head away from me at the same 1 time to prevent her catching hold of any part of my clothing in her efforts to bite. In 1 her fright and her rage she drew her body up ! across my back and twisted her tail round l and round my other arm. All that now re- quired of the keeper was by teasing or pinch l ing her here and there, or by unwinding the 1 tail when necessary, to cause her to shift her 1 coils constantly and prevent her resting long ! enough on one spot to apply undue pressure. My face I could protect for myself with the left hand. This I concluded he understood as a matter of course. I turned round to make sign to him to be ready to give me the
 ointment when judge of my dismay as I | caught sight of his stolid face, with a sort of dull impartial interest on 1t, looking at me
 through the glass in front, and the door
 closed on the outside He had got frighten-
 ed by the noise of the other pythons, and
 had quietly gone out again. I was about to make an impatient gesture, when in that
 same instant the serpent frightened on me so suddenly and so violently that momentarily lost consciousness. I then found myself
 staggering about the den, fighting for life. I
 expected to feel my ribs gi ve way every mo- ment, yet my chief fear at that time was of falling through the glass. I pushed the rep.
 tiles head away from me with all my might, lest it should cross my breast, and I can re- ! mem Der catching sight of myself, a mulberry \ was trampling about over the pythons, who ! furious at the disturbance, were now dartine
 about the den above and ali around me in | every direction and I exerted every energy ! to keep my feet, for had presence of mind
 enough left to know that if I went down il I would be all over with mo- The heat wax ! stifing. I could bear it DO longer; the cage spun madly round and round before my eyes
 and everything seemed to flame and roar.
 let go the head The snake twisted sharpl, ) back over my right shoulder close to my face but did not bite me, and slid off on th' ground I just recollect falling against th'
 door with outstretched hands, but nothing
 more until I found myself sitting on the step outside, coughing violently, while the phleg natic keeper putting hot key down m. back, for some occult reason. I brought III . a little blood, and drank little brandy, af ter which I soon got better; but I was no : we'll enough to walk home, and the bruise i,
 my side did not fade away for many a day suppose the whole thing did not last nor , than a few seconds but found it quite lonl enough. Fortunately. the snake had only . small part of her body across my left sid
 I and back had she encircled me with whol s, l coil should have been crushed like egg she'll