The Palatka daily news. (Palatka, Fla.) 1884-1888, 1886-12-07

Snakes Hatched i'm a Human stomach.
Particulars Set Forth soberly and in
Apparent Good Faith-Sewspapers Not
Altogether BIameIess-
England's laureate wrote, many years ago.
that knowledge grows, bat wisdom fingers"
1t is, however, open to doubt whether knowl-
edge is not quite as much given to lingering
as wisdom. The popular beliefs which still
hold their ground in defiance of educational
processes are often nothing less than amazing,
and OF this the daily papers from time to
time afford proof. For instance, an esteemed
contemporary the other day published as
special "a story about man suffering from
living snakes in his stomach. The narrative
was circumstantial ani specific. The man
was supposed to have swallowed the eggs Of
these snakes three years ago. They were
Matched in his stomach. They lived there,
two of them for two years and the third for
three years, and they gave the poor man a
great deal of pain and trouble. All the par
ticulars were set forth as soberly and APP
parently in as good faith as though we were
all still in the middle ages, and as though the
science of physiology had not emerged from
"a crude and infantile state.
No doubt thousands OF people read that
story without questioning its truth, and it is
equally certain that the majority of them
Il
ing an undue demand upon their credulity.
That "a man should swallow young snake or
a snakes egg and that it should develop and
live in his stomach Is, of course, the kind OF
warm which nobody could accept who had
the smallest knowledge of physiology, because
such knowledge would convince them that
the alleged fact was an impossibiity. that
the snakes eggs it swallowed would not be-
hatched, but digested; that n young reptile,
stomach would incontinently die there. and
that all stories OF live snakes harbored in
peoples insides are necessarily inventions OF
the crudest description But though every
schoollpOy ought TO know this, 1t Is only too
evident that great many people do not
know il, and that these continue to put faith
in fictiOns, the fundamental absurdity Of
which might comment them to the simple
aborigines. In the story of the snakes already
referred TO it is gravely stated that one OF
the elected ophidians was a garter snake. The
story would have been just as true il an ana
conda had been selected to figure in it.
The newspapers that print ridiculous lies OF
this kind are not altogether bameless, for
though they do not directly indorse the state
ments they give currency to them, and no
doubt there many confiding folks who
still believe things because they find them in
the papers. But considering the immense
revenues spent on popular education IN this
country it is not unreasonable to expect, at
the close Of the Nineteenth century. eman-
cipation from at least tie more crude popular
falacies which ignorance formerly fostered,
and when such grotesque cases of credulity
the Mercer county, o., story of the man
being converted into a red hot statue occur,
and the dissemination and growth of the
stories show how wide is the area of Egyptian
darkness which favors the evolution of such
rubbish, it becomes clear that great deal of
work-and even pioneer work at that-re-
mains TO lie done.
The people who believe in red hot stone
statues and living snakes in mems stomachs
are in certain branches of knowledge, which
ought to be common property, hopelessIy be-
hind the age. Perhaps it is too late to do
much for them, but certainly their SUCCESSORS
ought not 10 he permitted 10 grow up equally
benighted, and the infusion of little more
practical science into the common school
course is plainly required by the survival OF
the falacies We have cited and many others
which are not less deeply rooted.-New York
Tribune.