HANDLING SNAKES.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LXX, Issue 8552, 4 August 1888, Page 6

HANDLING SNAKES.

(Longman’s Magazine.) Some people who are used to handling snakes seem to lose all feeling of apprehension regarding them. Sir Joseph Fayrer, whose work styled “Thanatophidia ” contains the most perfect coloured plates and descriptions of the principal venomous snakes, had no fear of them. But he was very nearly bitten one day. He and a friend were busy examining the peculiar anatomy of a portion of a cobra’s tail. The cobra was in a box, and a native assistant was supposed to be holding down the lid of the box so as to allow only the tail to protrude. Somehow the native became careless, and he relaxed his hold on the lid, so that the cobra suddenly put out its head to see what Sir Joseph Fayrer was doing with its tail. Luckily, it was more pleased than offended at the liberties which were being taken with its tail, but it was unpleasant for Sir Joseph Fayrer to find his face almost touching the cobra’s mouth. Dr Eichards was another officer who assisted Sir Joseph Fayrer in his experiments with snakes. Dr Eichards came one day to see a lady patient at my house. He arrived in a palanquin, which was put down in the portico. He went to the lady's room and paid her a brief visit, and when he came out of the room he went to the palanquin and brought out a large cobra which he had brought over to show me, in order to prove by experiments in my presence that a particular kind of wood, which a native fakir declared to be an antidote to snake poison, was of no value. It is unnecessary to recapitulate the experiments, but his familiarity with the deadly snake was quite alarming. I could not help wondering vhat his lady patient would have said if she had known that he had brought a snake with him to the house, for she was terribly nervous about snakes.