The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1892-07-23


will inject poison. This can be poured
from the graduate into small bottles for |
use in experiments, and is best preserved
either by mixing with glycerine or by eva
porating down to crystals. The largest
amount of poison that the doctor has seen
given by six-foot diamond-bac at one
time was little over a teaspoonful.
r The whole secret of handling poisonous
snakes is to catch them at mechanical
disadvantage Snake charmers rarely use
the poisonous snakes, and they usually
work with snakes at a mechanical dlsad-
vantage. There are two safe holds with
the naked hand One way is to get the
hand as close to the neck as possible, in
which position it is impossible for the
snake to hit the hand Another way is to
suddenly lift the snake by grasping 1t
foot or more from the tail. With its head
banging downward the snake can only
raise its head. to the hand by slowly climb
ing up its own body. A slight motion Of
the hand will suffice to throw it down
again at full length.
THREATENING AND STRIKING.
There is fallacy in the popular idea of
the coiling of a snake in striking. The
snake does not coil up as it is usually rep
resented in pictures as doing, as it would
be impossible for it to strike effectively.
As matter of fact, from one-quarter to
one-third of the length Of the tail is coiled
as an anchorage, with the rattle raised in
the centre and vibrating so rapidly as to ap-
pear mere blur to the eye. Scarcely
quarter of the tail vibrates with the rattle,
and the sound given by an angry rattlesnake
resembles the familiar sound of locust IN
August. Having coiled its tail as an an
chorage or brace, not over two-thirds of the
body is thrown out in striking, and the
snake cannot hit with accuracy at over one
half to two-thirds of its own lenghth, that
part of its body falling out perfectly straight
on the ground if it misses. The coiled
part of the tail used as an anchorage re-
mains fiattened and firmly adherent to the
ground as point of resistance from which
to give force to the blow. DIR. Allen never
saw snake spring in the air, as it is COM
monty supposed to do, or entirely leave the
ground in striking.
Rattlesnakes and moccasins differ in their
ways of threatening and striking. The
moccasins threaten with their mouth partly
open and the fangs showing, keeping the
head within few inches of the ground,
and hitting low. The rattler, or the other
hand, in threatening, as rule, keeps the
mouth closed, getting the head higher and
higher, with waving motion, and only in
the act ofstriking opens its mouth. The
mouth is opened very wide, and the fangs
protrude. The rattler strikes much higher
than the moccasin, frequently wounding
between the knee and hip. The instant a
blow has been given the body is drawn
back to its old position of defensive and
threatening attitude, ready for another
blow.
When the fangs are driven in the flesh
these snakes differ also in their methods of
inficting the greatest damage. The rattle
snake bites desperately several times in the
effort to drive the fangs deeper and deeper
into the tissues before they let go. The
moccasin, after driving its fangs in, instead
of trying to drive both of them in deeper
and deeper, will alternately retract one
after the other, advancing it further and
further, making alternately new punctures
and dragging the tissues more and more
into its mouth before it will let go. Unless
greatly enraged, the moccasin is not in =
clined to hit at anything motionless or
moving very slowly. Any quick motion
will invite lightuing-like blow
Harmless snakes in cage with poison
GUS ones are rarely bitten, even though they
may slowly crawl over them. Rattlesnakes
in cage are apt to hit at any struggling
snake confined with them. They do not
seem to poison themselves unless vital
part is struck or the fangs penetrate some
of the cavities of the body. Poisonous
snakes rarely eat in captivity, especially the
diamond-back rattler, and refuse to eat
anything that Is not alive. They use water
freely, and should have plenty of it, and
on nothing but water they will live six
months.
THE RATTLER's DREADED FOE.
In the South is a snake called the king
snake. It is of the boa constructor tribe
and, it is popularity supposed, can kill the
rattlesnake and other snakes even of larger
size. Dr. Allen has had several king snakes
sent to him to test the truth of this, and
has found that this snake can and does kill
the rattlesnake and moccasin by twinine
itself so tightly around their necks as tC
choke them to death. The king snake is q
perfectly harmless snake, having no poisor
sack, and, although not poisonous, it seem:
to be absolutely proof against the poison Of
other snakes. Although frequently bitter
by some of the rattlers and moccasins in the
doctors collection, it showed no evidence
of injury from the poison, and no bad ef-
fects appeared when large doses of rattle
snake poison were injected into the mus
cles of its back. The king snake has lived
from six to eight months after the encoun
tiers mentioned
OF all the snakes, the diamond-back rat