The Arkansaw traveler., 1889-08-17
THE RATTLESNAKE.

From profuse.y illustrated article by Dr. s. Weir Mitchell on "The Poison of Serpents' In the August Century, we quote following "Let us observe what happens when the rattlesnake means mischief. He throws himself into . spiral and about one-third Of his length carrying the head, rises from the coil and stands upright. The attitude Is fine and warlike, and artists who attempt to portray 1t always fail He does not pursue, he waits. Little animals he scorns unless he is hungry, SO that the mouse or the toad he leaves for days unnoticed in his cage. Larger or noisy animals alarm him. Then his head and neck are thrown back, his mouth Is opened very wide, the fang held firmly erect, and with an abrupt swiftness, for which his ordinary motions prepare one but lttle he strikes once and Is back on guard again, vigiant and brave. The blow is stab, and Is given by throwing the head forward while the half coils below 1t straightened out to engthen the neck and give power to the motions which drive the faDgs into the opponents flesh as they enter, the temporal muscle clos the lower jaw on the part struck, and thus forces the sharp fang deeper in It Is thrust aidei by . bite. At this moment the poison duct Is opened by the relaxation of the muscle which surrounds 1t, and the same muscle which shuts the jaw squeezes the gland, and drives Its venom through the duct and hollow fang into the bitten part.
 "ln SO complicated a series of acts there Is often failure. The tooth strikes on tough skin and doubles back fails to enter, the serpent mis- judges distance and falls short and may squirt the venom four five feet in the air, doing no harm. had a curious ex perienoe of this kind in which a snake eight feet six inches long threw tablespoon or more of poison athwart nay fore head 1t missed my eyes by an inch or two have had many near escapes, but this was the grimmest of all An inch lower would have cost me my sight and probably my life.
 "A snake will turn and strike from any posture, but the coil Is the attitude always assumed when possible. The coil acts anchor and enables the animal to shake its fangs loose from the wound A snake can rarely strike beyond half its length. If both fangs enter the hurt is doubly dangerous, because the dose of venom Is doubled. At times fang is left in the flesh, but this does not trouble the serpents powers 6 poisoner, since number less teeth lie ready to become firmly fixed In Its place, and both fangs lost together. The nervous mechanism which controls the act of striking seems to he in the spinal cord, for we cut of 6 snakes head and then pinch its tail, the stump of the neck returns and with some accuracy hits the hand of the experimenter-H he has the nerve to hold on. Few men have. I have not. A little Irishman who took of my laboratory astonished me by coolly sustaining this test. He did 1t closing his eyes and shutting out for . moment the too suggestive view of the returning stump. Snakes have always seemed to me averse to striking, and they have been on the whole much maligned.
 steadily may pick up and handle gently the most venomous serpents. l fancy, however, that the vipers and the copperheads uncertain pets Mr. Thompson the snake keeper at the Philadel- phia Geological, handles his serpents with im- punity but one day having dropped some little moccasins few days old down his sleeve while he carried their mamma in his hand, of the babies bit him and made an ugly wound. At present the snake staff Is used to handle snakes.
 "I saw one October in Tangiers what had long desired to observe-a snake charmer. Most of his snakes were harmless but he refused, with well- acted horror, to permit me to take hold of them. He had also two large brown vipers; these he handled with care, but I saw at once that they were kept exhausted of their venom by having been daily teased into biting bundle of rags tied to Q stick. They were too tired to be dangerous have often snakes in this state. After three or four fruitless acts of instinctive of their venom they give up and seem to become indifferent to approaches, and even to rough handling"