The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-09-27
MYTHS CONCERNING SNAKES.


 
 MITES CONCERNING SNAKES.
 Expectations Regarding the 'sHilk" and "Hoop" Varieties Absurd. St. Louis Republic. Almost from time immemorial the snake has been the subject of all sorts of super stitions. Some of these are based on the most absurd misinterpretation of fact; more are purely mythical; but 1t Is sur prising how every snake yarn has its devotees who refuse to be converted de- spite the evidence of the foremost reptile experts and investigators. One of the more recent misconceptions that have cropped to the front is that
 the venom of the rattlesnake is not dan- gerous.
 Numerous instances are quoted where men and horses and dogs and cattle have been bitten by rattlers and have survived
 the poison with little or no inconvenience. eff any one has doubt as to the effect of rattlesnaks poison he is very welcome to come here and try one of my diamond
 backs" said a snake fancier the other day. in reply to question. q know instances where men merely thought they had been poisoned by rat tlers.' and where. of course' they sur vived.
 .'But a victim really struck by the rat tlesnake is going to have a hard time for his life.
 some years ago a professor of q Wash ington university lost his life owing to
 an experiment with young rattler only twenty-four inches long. "In order to obtain the skull Of the specimen the professor cut the head on the young snake. stopped to pick it up. | and like a flash the long, thin fangs were
 buried in his thumb, while the deadly poison was injected.
 ""The second day afterwards the pro-
 lessor died. after suffering the most frightful anguish and torture Another fatal instance was that Of q I physician who went bird shooting with a pair of his colleagues in Georgia. "A snake bit the hunter in the groin. striking an artery, and despite the pres- ence of two skilled companions, the vic- tim died within ten minutes. ''To say that the rattlesnake is not poll
 sonous Is like saying that the cobra is non-poisonous snake-1n fact, 1t amounts to saying we have no poisonous snakes "As a rule, the cobra's bite means death within an hour. So certain is the end that the native who is bitten makes no effort at all to save himself 'Ie simply wanders into his hut, if he
 can. and lies down to die. "And yet there are instances of cobra
 bites where the victims escaped un- harmed.
 What happens Is this: Tn order to in- ject venom q snake must strike It's poison fangs into the flesh of victim, and any bite hastily or improperly delivered. as 1t often is while the creatures are excited. is no more harmful than the bite of a kitten.
 But give the snake a chance to get
 proper hold and to sink his fangs, and the man who escapes with his life from a rattlesnakes bite will languish and suf- fer sometimes for years before he can get the frightful poison out of his system. Aside from all practical demonstration of rattler's bite, science has demon- strated that the venom is extremely dam gerous.
 "The analysis of the poison shows s5 Der cent. of blood destroying element and 5 per cent. of nerve destroying element. Medicine and chemistry have demon strata that the effect of the poison Is to attack the little red corpuscles of the
 blood, the effect on the human system be-
 ing exactly the same as that of acid poured with the water running through an iron pipe.
 "The poison in the veins eats and eats through the walls of the arteries and
 blood vessels, causing excruciating agony and eventually causes death by soaring
 into the heart" .4s A pet belief to which many cling and
 which they refuse to reiinquish is the yarn about the hoop snake, that dread l full reptile" that takes its tail in its mouth and rolls over the ground like hoop. making express-train time and winding up by sinking it's fangs into tree Of course, the tree dies and withers
 away within an hour after being bitten.
 In the Southwest, where the hoop snake A. -A~G make affidavfts that they have seen such
 snakes-locked safely in box and point
 ed out by experts as being the real
 thing''
 That there may be a snake known as the hoop snake in certain attitudes is very probable, but the witnesses who have seen one in action are very slow in coming forward with reputable names and ad- dresses.
 As a matter of fact, scientifically 1t is physically impossible for a hoop snake or a rattle or any other sort of snake to roll along the ground hoop fashion. The strength of a snake lies solely in
 its forebody. not more than half It's length from the head.
 The tail of even such a monster as the twenty regal python at the New York Geological Park Is compara- lively harmless, so that a body of 14 could hold 1t providing a dozen men were packed along the length of the animal to hold it's forebody to the ground It is evident, therefore, the hoop would collapse were a reptile to choose this
 mode of locomotion. Equally absurd is the story about the milk snake"
 Here in these latitudes as well as South if a farmer finds his cows thirty or forty quarts short in milk he says:
 "The milk snake has been around again."
 Asked to describe the milk snake, he explains that it is three pr four feet long and thick around as a a/broomstick. The absurdity of imagining such a small beast to get away with a quantity of milk
 enough to fill a milk wagon can is mani- fest on the face of it. Still, the milk snake Is described as most charming creature. She Is white. or
 cream white. and has an especial fasci- nation for COWS.
 She follows a herd from pasture to pas ture and frequently makes friends with one or more of the animals. is suddenly espied by a grazing COW. and
 the big beast stops, surprised, to gaze on
 the strange undulattons and the dance of the serpent
 Tn time the reptile works it's way to the
 side of the COW, while the big beast
 stands as if In trance.
 Then the milk snake works its way to
 the udder, takes hold even as a sucking
 calf and with infinite gentleness extracts | the milk, going from COW to COW until
 enough to gorge forty men at A meal has been extracted by the little short crea-
 ture.
 1 It takes more courage for a woman to l n