Waterbury evening Democrat., 1889-05-15
VENOMOUS REPTILES.
Tho Astonishingly Largo Rato of Mortal
 ity from Serpentine Venom.

Iy ITOAn ScIpchtAuo SohoAAN'
 If the published figures are at all ac curate, from twelve to twenty thou, sand persons die in British India from snake bite, largely from that of the cobra, which is a serpent of domestic habits. That the reptile was not long ago exterminated from all inhabited localities, says writer in the Cincinnati Commercial Gazette, is owing to the fact that it is worshiped by many of the natives. Even to-day in Mala- bar Hill, the most fashionable European quarter of Bombay, q short tune played on a musical instrument rarely fails to bring cobra out of some hole or crevice, for native veneration is too much for English caution. The natives are the chief sufferers from this folly. Very few Englishmen have been bitten, for they do not walk out bare footed, and usually take cane to poke the grass through which they walk. We be- lieve only four or five whites of promi- hence have been bitten by poisonous snakes in India since the opening of the present century, anf one of these was a midshipman on ves- sel in the Bay of Bengal. One of the dead ly hydriade, or water snakes, had been fished up, and the unfortunate youth handled it without knowing that it was venomous. Had the Hindoos exercised common sense, there would now be few cobras outsides of the jungles. Martinique and the neighboring islands of St. Lucia each report mortality from serpentine venom rivaling that of India, for each of these islands is overrun with the fer de lance, a tiercely aggressive viper, which has the peculiarity of giving birth to sixty little snakes at once.
 African explorers have their troubles with snakes, but they award the palm of danger not to them, nor to the lions or leopards, but to the fierce wild buffalo bulls During Prof. Drummond's recent journey to Lake Nyassa, two of his follow CTS were tossed by one of these savage creatures, and it was almost miracle that one of the wounded men survived the in- 1uries to his shoulders and ribs. The puff adder, an apparently sluggish creature, re- sembling ill build, though not in it's gorgeous colors, the horrible black and clumsy cottonmouthed moccasins of our Southern swamps, has pleasant trick of burying itself in the leaves and moss and of striking backw ard at any person who hap pens to come near it The naia haje, first cousin of the Indian cobra, but more az gressive and irritable, and the mamba, which runs down it's victims, are the princi- pal remaining poisonous serpents of Africa. There are green, black and fame-colored mambas, the last mentioned being often crested. The mambas sometimes reach a length of twelve feet, and are known to have chased horseman for miles. Their bite is almost certain death.
 A survey of the serpentine kingdom es- tablishes the fact that the most poisonous snakes are afraid of human berngs. The chief exception are the mamba, the naia haje and the great ophiophagus elaps, or hamadryad, of Burmah. This creature, which rivals the mamba in length, has an expanding head like the cobra and naia haje, but differs from both in some anatom- | ical particulars and also in the fact that it l is a cannibal, living principally on other | snakes. One of them chased Burman in | the woods few years ago. The man ran, and thought to escape by swimming across 1 a narrow stream. To his horror, on reach | ing the farther bank he found that the snake had crossed ahead of him. In his despair he tore off his turban and threw 1t at the rep | tile. The latter was obligipg enough to go | for the white rag and waste his venom | upon it, the man meanwhile making his es- cape.
 The mambas are principally found in Natal, though they exist to some extent as far north as Zanzibar, and may even have spread as far as the desert. We have found no mention of their presence in Egypt or in the Slnaltic Peninsula. There is nothing in their habits, however, which would exclude | them from the Northern tropics and sub | tropics, for they flourish under similar eli
 matic influences south of the line. We no tice that an item is on it's travels to the eff
 feet that the 'serpents'' which killed SC | many of the Israelites during their exodus | from Egypt were guinea worms, scientific
 ally known as the aracunculus. These fear
 full creatures bury themselves in human
 flesh, producing sores which often prove
 fatal. We doubt, however, whether they
 can be made to fulfill the demands of the
 Scripture narrative. We read in Numbers
 xxi, that 'the Lord sent fiery serpents
 among the people and much people of Isra | el died.''
 Geology has made us acquainted with ex
 tinct reptiles with whom one would not like
 to meet, even were he clothed in a coat O. | mail and armed with repeating rifle
 FroE1 some of these monsters the dragon.
 and grifins which figure in the folk lor'
 of all nations were undoubtedly depicted
 They have happily gone, never to return, a.
 have most of the rattlesnakes which former
 ly infested our oldest States. To this day
 however, an occasional rattler is killed il
 the Blue Hills of Milton, less than a dozel
 miles from Boston, and the sea serpent, al
 apparently solitary relic Of the saurial
 days, every now and then makes his az
 pearance in the ocean.
 Recent travellers in Alaska have hear
 from the Indians, though their faith has no been strengthened by sight, that herds o
 mastodon are yet feeding in the almost in accessible interior pastures of our new pos
 sessions. We hope the story may prove t be true, and that a paleozoic specimen ma yet be on exhibition in our mepageries. Gu
 belief is not strong in that direction, how ever, though when one has seen the octo pus, or devil fish, first brought into prom hence by Victor Hugo, he is prepared to be
 lieve almost any thing. The choice woul | no @ a nloaSouf h1t in the Q1fnrne tive of beng bitten by naia or mamba, 0
 of being cupped to death by an octopus, W
 think most persons would choose the fol
 mer.
 Tho Value of Hot Water.
 "The soothing effects of hot water ar not fully appreciated" said a physician tn
 other day. "I recommend it to many ( my patients who suffer from insomnia, prt duced by nervous irritation of the stomach : and also for certain forms of indigestion 7 Many of them object to it at first, but 500