The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1898-02-09

emily short stick, with moose O.
leather on the end. With this instru
ment the serpent is seized by th'
neck, and, taking care not to hurt it
the animal is laid upon table anc
held firmly. Between its jaws il
thrust the edge of little glass sau
Ger, which it bites fercely. The re
suit is an injection Of venom into the
saucer. This a yellowish, transpar
ent, sticky fluid, without smell Of
taste. 1t is soluble in water, and il
shaken becomes frothy. Dissolved il
alcohol or glycerine it preserves it:
properties for any length Of time
Dried it will remain unaltered for ar
indefinite period. On this account il
| is prudent to handle with care fangs
that have been removed from the jaws
of deadly snakes, no matter how old
they are.
DR.. Calmette keeps stock on hand
of venoms of many kind Of snakes,
dried or in solutions Of glycerine.
His cabinet of preserved poisons in
cludes those of the American rattle
snake, the dreaded copperhead, the
jaracara Of the valleys Of the Orinoco
and Amazon, and the surucu of the
same region, whose bite kills cow in
two hours also che cobra and kriat Of
India, the asp of Cleopatra, the hor-
ned viper Of Egypt, the tiger snake
and death adder of Australia, and the
famed fer-de-lance, which kills from
so to so persons annually in Martin
que, the last species peculiar 10 Mar
tinque, st. Lucie, and the neighbor-
ing islands Of St. Vincent. But so
far as possible the Doctor employs
venom from living serpents, and
healthy specimens Of the cobra, rat
tlesnake, asp, fer-de-lance, horned
viper, and other species are kept as
captives. It is observed that the
poisons Of different snakes vary much
in quality.
Snake venom will stand boiling for
long time without losing its proper
ties. It dries like gum or varnish.
The first chemical analysis Of it was
made by Prince ,Lucien Bonaparte in
1843, who called the supposed active
principle ;syiperine. Subsequentin-
vestigation has proved that it is a
very complex albuminoid compound.
DR.. Calmette gets the poison from
dead serpents by dissecting out she
glands from each side of the upper
jaw, just under the skin and behind
the eyes. These glands are made to
yield the poison which they contain
by pressure. Finally, the venom is
evaporated and put in a glass tube,
which is sealed at both ends to keep
out the air. One interesting fact dis
covered is that the blood of snakes is
poisonous. The supposition is that it
actually contains the principles which
are concentrated in the secretion of
the venom glands.
! Many lots Of scorpions have been
shipped from Tunis and Cairo to DR.
Calmette, who desired to study their
poison and compare it with that Of
snakes. The method he adopted was
/, to cut off the last segment of each
scorpion S tail and mash it in conica]
glass together with a little distilled
water. Then he filtered the mixture
and evaporated the resulting solution.
In this way he got forty-s six milli-
grammes of dry extract from twenty
eight scorpions. One twentieth of a
milligramme OF the extract killed a
mouse in two hours, the notable
symptoms being convulsive spasms
paralysis, and difficulty in breathing.
These symptoms corresponded closely
to those Of snake poisoning. Immun.
lied mice were not affected by the
scorpion venom. In the north OF
Africa scorpion bites are very serious
and sometimes fatal. Accordingly, il
is suggested that persons bitten by
scorpions may find the anti-yenom
cure. For long time it has beer
imagined that the poison of the bee
was probably comparable in power t.
that of the rattlesnake, inasmuch a.
so small a quantity as the insect i.
armed with produces such distressin,
effects.
One Of the straugest facts in natur,
is the immunity of certain species o
mammals from poison by snake venom
Hedgchogs do not seem to be injured
by it; pigs often eat deadly scrpcnts
and the little mongoosc, hardly large
than a big squirrel. does not hesitat