The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1904-06-04
AMONG THE CAPTIVE SNAKES.

AMONG THE CAPTIVE SNAKES.
The only living cobras in the Uni
ted States are two in this city, in the
reptile house OF the New York Zoolog-
ical Park, in The Bronx. The park
did have three cobras but one was
lost in curious manner.
Three dead rats were put in the
cobras' cage, one day, as food for the
serpents, and each cobra got one ;
but before the smallest of the three,
this one being a feet in length less 8
inches, had swallowed its rat, another
cobra, which had been prompter in
swallowing the rat that it got, seized
upon the rat in the slower cobra's
mouth and took that in, and took the
cobra with it, swallowing the cobra,
too, or all but three or four inches Of
its tail.
With pair of forceps the swallow
ed cobra was drawn out of the greed
ier cobra's interior, with the rat which
it had seized upon and tried to swal-
low, still in its mouth. The cobra
was still alive and every effort was
made to save it, for cobras are valua-
BILE and scarce and difficult to obtain
here.
1t was soaked in tepid water, and
massaged, and subjected to the pro-
cess of artificial respiration, but all
unavailingly. In the end the cobra
succumbed to its hard experience.
A little later the cobra that had
swallowed the other had hard ex-
perience of its own. Itwas bitten on
6e ths lSYeT 62 ges aW bX the other surviving
Poisonous snakes are immune to
the other snakes but as a result of
this bite, which was through the flesh
to the bone, there developed on the
bitten snakes jawbone an abscess that
persistently resisted treatment. The
cobra was taken from its cage and the
jaw opened and the diseased portion
of the bone scraped off, but two days
later the abscess reappeared, as it did
again after another similar treatment.
Gangrene appeared and then por-
ton of the bone was shipped away,
with the hope of removing the seat of
the infection. But the disease con-
tinued to appear, and then, as the one
method of saving the cobra's life, it
was decided to remove the section of
the jawbone affected.
The incision for this purpose was
made in the top, or back, of the
head, so that the under, or front, side
of the head should not be marred by
a scar. With the slenderest of seal
pels the muscular tissues were sepa-
rated from the bone to be removed,
which was one of the lower bones,
and it was then unjointed from the
upper bone and taken out through
the opening in the top of the head.
After the most thorough antiseptic
treatment, the exterior wound was
sewed up with two stitches and the
cobra's head was done up in wet
bandages that covered it entirely, ex-
cept as to its nose, these bandages
being kept moist. 1t was probably
the first cobra that ever had its head
bandaged.
After a few days the outer band
ages were removed, and finally the
remainder of them, to discover the
wound entirely healed; and the cobra
has never suffered from it since. II
is now, a year and a half after the
operation, as to its bodily health, as
we'll as ever. But as it has lost its
power on that side of the jaw from
which the bone was removed, it can
no longer eat as it once did.
Formerly it could take in and swal.
low a rat whole, and, as has beer
seen, it could swallow another snake
very nearly as big as itself. But now
it can take in nothing bigger than 9
mouse. 1t thrives on such small fooc
as it can swallow, to which are added
for its better nourishment, three time:
a month, two or three eggs beaten ur
and forced down the cobra's throat
with syringe.
The cobra that was swallowed, anC
finally died, now appears mounted II
a lifelike attitude, with its head ant
body raised and its hood spread, in
tall Jar that stands on the desk O
Raymond L. Ditmars, the curator o
reptiles in the Park. This cobra wa
mounted by Mr.. Ditmars, and it wa.
he that performed the novel operation
that resulted in saving the life of th'
other cobra.
This second cobra is fed on delica
cies of necessity; because it can nj
longer take in the food it would or
dinarily consume but all the snake
have to be pampered more or less
and the feeding of the snakes is some
thing that must be attended to wit
the most scrupulous care. In man.
cases not only must the proper foo
be supplied, but various devices mus
be employed in order to make ther
eat at all !; even to the use of force il
introducing food into their throats.
All snakes are likely to be nervou
and shy when first brought into car