The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1900-08-15

glass between the jaws. the grip on the
neck would be slightly relaxed, and the
serpent would viciously close its jaws on
the watch glass. and in doing so squirt
the whole of its venom through the tiny
holes of its fangs into the concavity of
the glass
In this manner snake after snake was
made TO part with its venom into a watch
glass Often between sixty and hundred
snakes were so dealt with in the course of
a morning.
The watch glasses were then placed on
small glass stands in a plate swimming
with melted beeswax. Large glass bell
jars were then heated so as to drive out
most Of the air in them, and these were in
verted over the plate on to the wax. The
entire plate was then placed on a shelf, and
the venom allowed to dry in vacuo for sew
en- days. AT the end of that time the
dried venom Ga flaky yellow POWDER was
scraped off the glass with a sterilzed
knife, the powder was Theoretically sealed
up in small glass tubes, the tubes labeled
showing the species OF snake aud date on
which the venom was extracted, and the
whole supply forwarded weekly TO Prof
Calmette. In this condition the desiccated
venom maintains its virulence for months.
Bitten by a Viper.
1t must not be supposed that even in the
the manipulating of snakes and collecting
of venom were unattended by consider
able danger. The man nearly lost his life
on two occasions during the above opera
tons. On the first occasion l was present
when the cunning of his hand was outdoue
by the agility of particularly ferocious
echis. l shall never forget my horror
when | realized that the man had been
outwitted and had been fairly bitten on
4 IN, 1f :, I &C
my admiration of the oalm fortitude that
he showed on that occasion. Whether
it be that he really had no fear or wheth-
er he was ashamed to show it know not.
1t happened thus: He had placed a large,
active and very aggressive viper on the
polished floor, and was proceeding 10 pin
ion 1t in the usual way. The snake SEEM
ed to comprehend his tactics and for a
considerable time Kullan's efforts were
foiled. The little creature made many flu
tile attempts 10 attack its aggressor by
springing forward at Kullan's naked feet,
but owing to the slippery floor it was I'M
able to make good its attack. AT length,
after repeated failures, the man succeed
ed in pinning the viper's head to the floor,
and his left hand seized the neck. The
moment he did this the snake coiled itself
vigorously around his hand and before
the assistant could get a grip of the tail
it had slipped through Kulan's fingers,
and in doing so drove one fang fortunate
ly there was only one fang prick) into the
fieshy part of the mans middle finger,
just below the nail In a second he had
dashed the reptile to the ground and was
sucking with all his might a. the bitten
finger. The doctor in another instant had
placed a ligature around the base of the
finger and another just above the elbow.
The doctor then pulled out a scalpel
and was about to amputate the last bone
of the finger. but Kullan would have none
of it.
He smiled placidly and said: DO not
frighten yourself. sahib. I shall be all
right. There's no necessity to prevent
my earning my living by cutting off my
finger. have been bitten many times be-
fore and am still alive, and I'm not going
to die this time, either. Just take that
knife and cut my finger open. deeply, right
down to the bone, over the spot where the
fang entered" and he held out his finger
to the doctor, who promptly did as he was
bid, while Kulan stood there and scarcely
WINGED at the operation.
Now. sahib, kindly tell them to bring
me a leech," said Kullan, all the time
sucking hard at his finger.
In few minutes a leech was made TO
fasten firmly on the bottom of the wound.
Enough! calculated Kulan. Now l
win ask but one more favor. sahib, and
that is to excuse your slave doing any
more work with the snakes to-day.
will return next Wednesday as usual, with
plenty more snakes"
On the following Wednesday Kullan
true to his boasting promise, turned up
as usual with his two assistants and
though his bag was not as large as usual
he had brought with him enough snakes
20 kill a whole regiment. His hand was
in a sling; he had removed the ligetures
and the arm was much swollen, but he
was otherwise well and only complained
of feeling rather weak. He said that
three or four hours after the bite he felt
very i'll and thought he was going 20 die
His friend sent for fekir "a holy mani,
who fumigated him with strong incense
of sorts and repeated lamentations, and
in a short time he began to feel better
The next day he was out catching snakes
again.
On another occasion, about a month
later, Kullan, having extracted the venom
from large number of vipers at the
laboratory, took the creatures 10 the dis
trict magistrate 10 receive the usual head
money. The custom was for him to de-
capitate all the snakes he brought and
then to count the heads in the presence
of an official. The heads were all lying
about, and Kullan was placing them in
little heaps according TO the different
species. While he was doing this one of
the heads (which retain mobility for some
time after being severed from the trunk
fastened its two fangs into the loose skin
of Kullan's hand between the thumb and
index finger The official present imme-
diately placed a lgature on the arm above
the bite, and with pocketknife freely in
cised the skin over the punctures. What
Kullan did after this know not, but he
was apparently little the worse for the
bite, and turned up the following week
with a good supply of snakes. 1t is posi-
BILE, of course, that the decaptated viper
on this OCCASION was not very viruient,
for it had had all its venom extracted the
day previous and even II more venom
had meantime been eecreted. 1t Is a ques-
ton how far a decapitated head of a
snake would be capable of injecting ven
ON through It's poison fangs. 1t is more
than probable also that the man Kullan,
who had survived the bites of so many
snakes, had by this time become more or
less immunized, like Prof. Calmette's
horses.
CHILD LIFE IN CHINA.