The daily morning journal and courier., 1900-01-23
CURIOUS SNAKE LORE.
DELSA RITES THEORY OF THE SER
 PENT WITHIN US.
Man's Unrensoning Dread of Reptilcs- Its Manifestntion in Dolirium-A Boa, Rocking Chair, and n Maltese Cat.

l
 It is not generally known that the
 late Francois Delsarte who is associated
 In the minds of most persons with a system of dramatic aesthetics, made a long and scientific study of herpetology,
 and arrived at some conclusions that
 have been more or less verified in differ
 ent parts of the world, but concerning
 which our later students of snake lore
 appear to be either wholly ignorant or
 incredulous. Delsarte formulated a
 theory of his own after innumerable ex-
 periments, and however speculative
 many of his conclusions may have ap-
 peared at the time, it is certain that
 subsequent biologic investigations have
 not at all disturbed them, but on the
 contrary, have thrown much corrobo-
 rative light upon them. The French
 master at his death left many manu-
 scripts treating upon this subject, and
 a number of them came to this country
 in the hands of favorite pupil.
 It may be interesting now to state as
 briefly as possible what the Deslarte
 theory was. As is well known to those
 who are familiar with his aesthetic phi
 losophy, he, like August Comte, laid
 down three laws, which he called the
 vital, the affectional, and the intellectu-
 al. He designated them as zones of
 organization" indicative of the animal
 capacity to be, to feel, and to think.
 In the scheme of animated nature, he | found that the reptile is of all the forms
 of vertebrate life which we are familiar,
 the one strictly limited to the vital zone. It is in its orphidlan form essen-
 tially spinal system, without the func- tional germs of the other two capacities. Delsarte declared that the serpent re- presented, In animal life the first de-
 gree of space. He is line, mere eX- tension, and the last link in the de-
 scending scale of familiar vertebrates that give any evidence of consciousness. purely vital organization, the reptile represented the basic element of life as we see and understand it. He digest ed and secreted, governed and impeled only by the irritation of an appetite or the disturbing accidents of his environ ment. When his appetite was allayed, he became dormant. His economy of forces was admirably adjusted to these ends. He wasted little tissue and lived to a great age
 It was Delsarte's ultimate conclusion that this serpent vitality, as distinct factor in life, was embodied in man himself in his spinal system and with characteristic French alacrity he jump ed to psychic conclusions of singuar if not fanciful import. The one great mystery of the serpent is mans uncon- querable repugnance to him and fear of him, which the mere physical facts do not explain. An undefnable terror with regard to the serpent has had possession of the race from it's infancy. It Is not occasioned, says Delsarte, by the obser- vation of stealthy animal, but by the recognition of what lies coiled within us. Thoreau in one of his mystical mo- ments entertains an idea not diesimlar to this. We are conscious he says, ] of an animal in us which awakens as our higher nature. slumbers. It Is rep tile and sensual and perhaps cannot be wholly expelled. l fear. that 1t may en- joy a certain health of its own, that we may be well but not pure" (Walden,) Amiel, too, in that feverish insight which invalidiem often confers, says somewhere, What is this thing that stirs in me and slowly uncoils it's length 1 at dark moments?"
 Delsarte, without any assistance from Philo Judaeas, Clement, or other of the l Christian fathers, who held to the sym l bolical import of the snake story in Geneeis, pointed out that the use of the | serpent in that narrative of the Fall is l a mythical representation of a physical | fact, and that the serpent represented the spinal element in man which was to [ work his undoing. All we have to do, | says Delsarte, to escape from the con- | fusion and contradiction of the com mentators, is to study the serpent in nature and in man. He is the symbol | and the certainty of the Unconscious. | He has in zoology no higher brain. There is in his fattened head no room for a cerebrum. He has no eyelids, those unfailing physiognomical indices of sensibility and volition. He is an au- tomatom governed by surface irritation and by rhythm. Whatever may be the limitations of that nature, it is certain that it lies embedded in us eecreting, like the crotalidae, some kind of virus.
 Whatever may be the scientific value of these speculations it is certain that once entertained they throw a curious upon that -perplexing mystery, the relation of the seprent to man, that has not been supplied by the ology or biology. The awe and fear of the serpent that have been from the oldest recorded times a characteristic of all races have no explanation in the con- or habits of the animal, nor in its so-called subtlety. It is of all the enemies of man the most easily de- stroyed. It has little defence from boy with a stout stick or a man in heavy boots, and yet Houdan saw brave English officer faint at the sight of cobra that Hindu woman killed with a bamboo. If it's back is broken, it 6 helpless, and the lightest blow crush ss its skull It never pursues, and, if eft it itself, never attacks, unless to obtain food. Why then the astonishing md ineXplicable dread which 1t excites? Why does 1t assert itself in phantasmal In delirium tremens or in sanity and In morbid dreams?
 In reply to the easy assertion that hese are mere occurrences of an heredi- ary or educational dread, Delsarte col ected number of facts to show that he instinctive terror was manifested by nen who were ignorant of the Biblical tory and with no antecedent experi- ,nce ot snakes. lie declares that the