The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1889-08-16
THE RATTLESNAKE
What Happens When 1t Means Mis-
chief
From The august Century

From The august Century.
Let us observe what happens when the
rattlesnake means mischief. He throws
himself into a 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 al~ays fail. DE does not pur-
sue, be waits. Little animals he scorns I'M
less he Is hungry, 50 that the mouse or toad
he leaves for DAYS UunOtlced III his cage.
Larger or noisy creatures alarm him. The1
ms head and neck are thrown far back, his
mouth Is opened very wide, tie fang held
nrmly erect, anu with an abrupt s"lttnesS,
Tor which mis- ordinary motions prepare one
but Lt IL, he strlEe3 once and Is back on
guard again, vieilant and brave. The blow
IS stab, and Is given b. throwing the head
forward while the half-coils below it are
Strengthened out 10 lengthen the neck
and give power to the motions
which drive the fangs into the opponents
flesh; as they enter the temporal muscle
closes the lower jaw on the part struck, and
thus forces the sharp fang deeper in. 1t is
thrust aided by tie. At this moment
the poison duct Is opened by the relaxation
Of the muscle when surrounds it, and he
same muscle which shuts the jaw squeezes
the gand, and drives the venom tar 1ugh
the duct and hollow fang into the bi ten
part.
In so complicated a series of acts there
Is often failure The tooth strikes on tough
IN aud doubles back or fails to enter, or
Tue serpent mn Judges distance and falls
short d may squirt the veIom four or
hVe feet IN the air. doing no harm. | had
curious exper. eAce Of this kInl in which
snake feet g inches long threw a tea
spoo full or more If poison athwart my
forehead. 1t missed my eyes by an inch or
two. l have had many near escapes, but
this was the grimmest Of all. An inch lower
would have cost me my sight aud probably
my life.
"A axe will turn and strike from any
posture, but the coil is the attitude always
assumed when possible. The coil acts as IA
amen and enables the animal to shake its
Iangs loose from the wound. A snake can
rarely strike beyond half his length. Ii
bota fangs enter, the hurt is doubly danger
Gus, because the dose of venom is doubled.
AT times fang is left in The flesh, but this
does not trouble the serpent's powers as a
polsoner, since num Oerless teeth lie ready to
become firmly fixed in i S place, and both
fangs are never lost together. The nervous
mechanism which controls the act of strik-
Ing seems to be IN the spinal cord, for if we
cut oil snakes head and then pincn it,
tail, the stump of the neck returns and with
some accuracy hits the hand of the expert
melLer-t he has the nerve to hold on.
Fe" men have. | have not. A little Irish
man who took care of my laboratory aston
lShed be by cOolly sustaining this test. He
did 1t by closing his eyes and so shuttiny
out Tor moment the too suggestive view
or the returning stump. Snakes have al
ways seemed to me averse to striking,
anu the have been on the whole mucl
maligned
"A y cool. quiet person moving slowly
and steadily may pick up and handle gently
most Venomous serpents. | fancy, however,
tnat the Vlpers nd the pperheads are I'M
certain pets. Mr. Thompson, the snake
keeper at the Phil tdelphia biological, han
dles his serpens with impunity: but one
day having dropped some little moccasins a
few days old down his sleeve while he car
rled their mamma in his hand, one OF the
babies bit him and made an ugly wound.
AT present the snake staff is used to handle
snakes.
Il saw, one October, in Tang iers, what L
had long desired to o serve-a snake
cnarmer. Most Of his snakes were harm
less; but he refused, with well-acted hor-
ror, to permit me to take hold of them. He
had also two large brown vlpers; these ne
haudled with care, but | saw at once that
they were kept exhausted of their venom
by havi G been daily leased int biting on a
bundle of rags tied to stick They were
too tired to be dangerous l have often
seen snakes in this state. After three or
tour frultless &C of distinctive use of their
venom they give up. and seem to become
Indifferent to approaches, and even to rough
handling"