The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1898-06-06
sSThere is no Kodak
but the Eastman Kodak"
1898
KODAKS
For sale by
The Arthur II. Barnes Co.
6 o,tyH Store. 159 Church st.

charm, to paralyze, to hypnotic or
whatever the condition may properly be
termed. 7 also believe that it will take
q man of iron nerve and will to resist
the fascination of a rattlesnake's eye
if he cares to attest his ability by gaz-
ing into the eye when the ugly reptile
is angry and excited, using strong
glass in making the test. Even the eye
of q dead rattlesnake has a terribly
malignant expression. When the rep
tile Is alive and quivering with excite
rnent, his brilliant length coiled like a
painted spiral, the fiat, triangular,
vicious head raised and curved above
the folds and the harsh rattle vibrat-
ing as rapidly as a humming birds
wing, there is nothing in all nature so
dreadful in it's appearance as the eye
that glitters and glares above all this
deadly beauty, and I am satisfied that
1t Is enough to strike not only birds
and beasts, but men also, with ire
sistible, haunting nightmare, the spell
of which they are unable to break until
some disturbing force destroys it's po-
tency. I have never seen the man who
who could look into the eye of an an
gered rattlesnake through a powerful
glass for more than a minute without
feeling himself fascinated by the very
terror Of it. I have myself made the
experiment many times. am as strong
Of nerve as the next man and have no
dread of reptiles of any kind out I
have never been able to withstand the
influence of the rattlesnakes eye. Not
withstanding this, and what I have
seen rattlesnakes do to birds and ami
mails, I have seen a chicken that was
turned into a rattlesnake's cage DELHI
erately roost on the snakes back and
peck at it's tongue as it darted in and
out, evidently imagining it to be an
insect on the wing or a worm in mo-
ton, and the snake never once offered
the chicken harm
"As to snakes swallowing their
young, the books declare the thing
ridiculous. The books are right but
only by a technicality. They teach
that snakes do not swallow their young
meaning by that to deny that young
snakes ever seek the security that The
interior Of their mother grants. have
seen dozen young blacksnakes,
alarmed at my APPROACH wiggle quickly
across a road, where, with her capaci-
Gus Jaws distended, the mother await
ed them, and to get into the opening
thus presented to them they tumbled
over one another Every one of them
disappeared down the old snake S
throat, and she moved away with them
into the weeds as rapidly as she could.
I have seen this not only once, but q
dozen times, as have others who live
in rural communities. Gartersnakes,
watersnakes and, suppose, many 9TH
err varieties of snakes protect their
young in the same way. They do not
swallow them. The little snakes SIM
ply run down their mothers throat,
and when the danger is post they run
out again. I cannot say of my own
knowledge that rattlesnakes engulf
their young in this way, but have been
told by trustworthy dwellers in rattle
snake territory that they do.
IA popular error in regard to snakes,
and one that the books have helped to
strengthen, is that when they have
killed their prey, either by construction
or poison, they saliyate or iubricata it
by means of their tongues. This would
be a physical impossibility, for even
in the largest serpents, the tongue is
but an insignificant member, too small,
in fact, to lubricate the tiniest bird.
The circumstance that gave rise to this
fable Is the fact that the snake moves
it's head about its dead prey, feeling
with it's tongue for the right Fart to
begin upon in gorging it's meal, and
when that part is taken in the mouth,
and not until then, do the salivary
glands begin their function of aiding
deglutition.
1.-THE functions of the snakes tongue
have long been the subject of another
popular error. Job speaks of the
viper's tongue Staying one aud Shake
speare frequently has references Of a
similar kind. The tongue of snake
Is most delicate and senitive organ
of touch, for the eyes are so placed in
the ophidian head that the reptile can
see neither in front Of nor below it
self. By means of it's long, nervous,
slender tongue it literally feels it's way
along. The tongue is not the snake $
sting and there is no poison in It, first,
because the snake has no sting st Ill,
and, second, because the snakes poison
is kept in gland just back of and be-
low the eye on each side oe the head
The snake never stings; it bttas. When
it bites the two fangs at the roof of the
mouth, which are hollow and connect
with the poison glands, act as trans
mitters, carrying the poison from the
glands into the flesh of the being bit
ten. A scorpion, a wasp, a bee, stings
you. A snake strikes you with it's fangs
Snake poison is a thin, yellowish fluid
resembling the white of an egg.
TT is this popular error about the
snakes tongue which is largely re-
sponsible for the wide belief that every
snake is venomous, or at least poison
ous-an utterly absurd belief, as are
most of the popular notions about
snakes. The proportion of poisonous
snakes to harmless ones is very small
In India, which is the veritable land of
deadly serpents, the proportion is
rather discouraging, as there are hum
dreds of yarities of snakes there and
one in ten is poisonous. In southern
India there are twelve kinds of deadly
snakes, the largest being the hama
dryad, which grows to be fifteen feet
in length. A bite from one of these re-
suits in death within three minutes
| and it has the reputation of being ex-
tremely fierce and ready to attack on
the slightest provocation. The cobra
iii oana1lo on thn OtbpT, hand oh