M'GARVIE SMITH

Thames Star, Volume LII, Issue 13808, 25 September 1918, Page 6

M'GARVIE SMITH

WORLD'S RECORD FOR HAiND--1 .' . LING SNAKES. ' ' t M'Garvie Smith, perhapsi Australia's 'greatest practical scientist to date, had a. saturnine humour. You would probably expect grimness from a. man -who, in. the pursuit of a vaccine against snakebite, handled on the average 30 or 40 venomous reptiles daily for three years. Did he not have 500 snakes of all varieties that could be found in New South Wales caged in one of Ms Woollaihra laboratories? Now M'Garvie was proud that he was M'Gar.vde. ' In' other words, though a native of Paddington, Sydney, he prided himself on has Presbyterian origin. And. he was a good business man. How else could he have amassed a big fortune, first out of watch-making, then assaying, and finally germs. So he was the wrong man to try to take a fall out of in a deal, though he was. a scientist. "Got some good 'snakes io-day, Mr M'Garvie," said the rough-loolcing fellow who stood at the door in Holdsiworth-street, Woollajhra, with, a sack in either hand.. "And I want £1 each,for the half-dozen," he added aggressively. "I've got two blacks and a brown in this bag, and a death adder and two bandy-bandies, in the odaher." '"■Hum, ■£!■ each," mused Mi'Garvie, who was a'big man of 18 stone, with the quick eye of the rifleman and a merry twinkle always playing around it. "Bring 'em into the back of the house." FLAT RATE FOR SNAKES. -The buyer and seller adjourned to the upstairs attic at the rear, where the snakes had their headquarters'. "Now, let me. see what ; they're like," said M'Garvie, "They must •be big .fellows at that price." For be it ■remembered that M'Garvie, who was a just dealer, had 1 a flat rate of 5s per snake. It had to be something '.uncommonly good to "bring more at Woollatara.. ' "I want £1 for 'em," saad tlie •snake-catcher defiantly, as he handed the two sacks to M'Garvie. i , M'Garvie was quick in all his ac-, tions, and in a twee had emptied the j contents of. the bags on to the tiled j floor where they began; to squirm and j crawl as fast as they could on the} smooth surface. j "Don't think much of 'em," de-.j dared M'Garvie. "Five bob each is I my price. If you won't sell at that, j take the snakes away. I don't want! expensive luxuries here." j Tihe snake hunter looked at the j blacks, the' 'brown, the death adder > j and the bandy-bandies scattering all j over the floor. Then at the imperturbable features of M'Gaa-vie. "Better take 30s for the lot, I suppose," ibe said, ruefully, putting; out his hand for payment. \ ' M'Garvie reckoned it settled- that j attempt to bear the snake market on him. THE APPREHENSIVE NEIGHBOURS. And because of his snakes, M'Garvie Smith, the painstaking scientist, man of marvellous driving power and terrific courage and determination, was misunderstood. MHainy of his neighbours, unaware of his aims, considered him a crank who had a cage full of snakes as pets. ,It amused M'Garvie, who often went into town • with a big leather bag in wihich he ; brought home cheer for- the faimily boto<rd, to note how wihen he had j that bag on the floor of the tna.in i near his feet, the other passengers timidly edged away to the further corners of the compartment. They j apparently imagined a snake would * dart forth from the .leather, bag at I any momiemt, and bite themi. I Others thought that M'Garvie kept j reptilian pets in the trees around h's ' house. 'As in the case of the mian ! who keeps a bulldog", lihe belief that'

, there were snakee at large vx tin trees no doubt kept many caller* away. j But M'Garvie was not toying with death, in the form of poisonous snakes j for fum. He was not that sort of man. He ihiad contempt for the socalled snake ''oharmere." He told the writer they were simply fools to handle snakes without the* venom was first extracted, and four different charmers tihiat he warned were killed in the end by snakes biting them. Th,e celebrated Fox, who died in India/ from a krait bite, was, one of the four on wihose ears tihe advice of the wise old M'Garvie fell unheeded. NO VACCINE FOR SNAKEBITE. At the end of three^years M;'Giarvie gave up tie quest for a snake-Mte vaccine on the ground tihat it is bacteriologically impossible. A vaccine against the bite of one kind of snake might not sex've against the bite of another. The only thing that, so far as scientists know., has been immunised a.gainst snakes-bite of all sorts is a donkey. And note the system amd the thoroughness of M'Garvie. He sa.id that he was never once bitten by a snake witih all tihe thousands he (bandied. Beyond question, he has ■handled more .snakes than any other man mi the world. -^And how caime it that you were never bitteny M'Garvie?" "I always exercised great oare/: was the simple. and ready reply. It is true to say that it was care, plus a nerve, a steady hand, and an eagle eye, which, comlbinaition. . has surely never been surpassed in any mortal, that allowed tihe great John M'Garvie Smith to come through Ms fiery ordeal in snake world unscathed. One luas to pay homage to the meanory of such a super-man'. M'Garvie was buried on September 7. It can be said of him that for the sake of science, he loved so well he took terrible risks in tihe hope that he might be able to benefit his fellows, and particularly the men on tihe land who people- the outback. — Sydney Sun..