THE SERPENT'S VENOM

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · May 7, 1894

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 20, No. 27.

THE SERPENT'S VENOM.

A PHYSICIAN, while talking with a group of friends, remarked: "It is common to hear people speak about poisonous serpents. Serpents are never poisonous; they are venomous. A poison cannot be taken internally without bad effects; a venom can. Venoms, to be effective, have to be injected directly into the circulation, and this is the manner in which the snakes kill. Their venom, taken internally, is innocuous.

"Another popular error is the supposition that a snake bites. Probably no creature in the world provided with teeth and jaws has so little power of biting. The jaws are not hinged, but are attached one to the other by cartilage. Thus a snake can have no leverage in opposing one jaw to the other, and could not in this manner pierce the skin. The fangs are driven into the flesh by a stroke, and not by a bite. A snake is harmless unless in coil. From its coil it throws its head and body forward, and strikes or hooks its fangs into the object aimed at. The entire work is done with the upper jaw, the lower jaw having nothing at all to do with it. A man striking a boat hook into a pier furnishes an example of the way in which a snake strikes. Biting is a physical impossibility."—New Orleans Times Democrat.