The Democratic banner. (Mt. Vernon, Ohio) 1898-192?, 1916-03-03
DREAD
Of Reptiles Common To Near
Iy Everybody
(science)

AFRAID OF SnaheS-eVen or
the harmless kinds-an evidence that |
the human race originated on the con-
tinent of Asia, where serpents Of all
sorts have always been abundant and
generally venomous?
This adherence of serpents is really
a deep-seated animal instinct, which
has survived long after the conditions
that gave it origin.
Rational persons who are informed
on the subject know that the great
majority of the snakes to be encoun
tered in this country are entirely harm
less, being without venom or fangs;
and, indeed, the wf1ter has determin-
ed to his own satisfaction at least,
that in this particular region the only
one of the snake family that is a men.
ace to human life is the now rarely
encountered Crotalus horridus, using
the term in generic sense.
And yet, any intelligent person
when unexpectedly brought into close
proximity to any kind of a snake,
large or small, venomous or non'ven-
or even semblance of snake, Is
suddenly seized by a panic of horror
and fear, with an impulse to spring
away out of the serpents reach as
quickly as possible in a sort of blind
terror.
The probable origin of the instinct
i've horror of serpents that still domin-
ates the mind of civilized man was dur
ing the countless generations when
early man was slowly climbing up from
his animal ancestry to his present emf
nence as Homo sapiens Being with
out tire and without clothing or shell
ter, he was peculiarly defenseless in
an environment beset by deadly SER
pents, against this, probably the great
est danger and greatest menace to ra-
cial survival that he had to encounter
Hence his instructive horror of the
serpent form.
The idea that India was the cradle"
of the white race at least, with its
serpent environment threatening ra-
cial existence for very long period
of its primitive development, appears
to receive some degree of confir'na-
tion from tho fact that among the in-
habitants of India at the present time
the annual mortality from attacks of
serpents exceeds 10000, notwithstand-
ing the efforts Of the British authori-
ties to suppress the evil.
The serpent-instinct in man has a
close analogy in a similar instinct that
characterizes the domestic horse of
the present time, to which allusion
has been made by writer's on the sub
! ject. It is a familiar fact to every
one who has to do with horses, the
proneness of the horse to exhibit an
insane and uncomfortable fear of any
unfamiliar wayside object. Indeed
the phenomenon is so commonplace
that probably very few persons have
given a thought in explanation of what
appears to be a wholly unaccountable
mystery.
The suggestion that has been offered
with compelling force to account fol
this curious horse-instinct is on paral
lei lines with that offered above to ac
count for mans serpent-instinct, botf
OF which in the nature of animal in
stincts are intense and deep-seated
and have long survived the conditions
that gave rise to tAem,
In the case of the horse, for very
long period of his racial development
he was subjected to one danger ex
ceeding all others In magnitude b,
which survival was constantly threat
ened. This danger was embodied II
the predacious beasts that infested the
horses early environment, mainly o
the feline family that lay in wait con
cealed by bushes or other cover fol
the opportunity to spring dpon him ant
devour him. The horse had no mean!
of defense against this danger eXcep
altertness in eluding the spring of hi
enemy and fleetness of foot to escape
pursuit. The individual horses tina
developed these qualities most highl!
survived, while those that failed t
reach an efficient standard fell victims
to their enemies,
And we now see, thousands of years
after the domestication of the horse
that he suddenly falls into sense
less panic and fees at breakneck speet
from an imaginary danger behind him
Needless of real dangers ahead whicl
not infrequently cause him a broker
neck.
The instructive fear of imaginar!
dangers in the horse, and the sam,
kind of fear of serpents in man, appea
to have had a similar genesis in tn,
early experience of both races.
--.---. .f.------------