Venoms: Venomous Animals and Antivenomous Serum-therapeuticsCalmette, A. (Albert)
Science
Venoms: Venomous Animals and Antivenomous Serum-therapeutics
Calmette, A. (Albert)
Antitoxins; Poisonous snakes; Toxins; Venom
Total length, 2,000 millimetres; tail 300.
_Habitat_: From Senegambia and Upper Egypt to Angola and the Transvaal.
(5) _N. anchietæ._--Scales in 17 rows on the neck and on the body;
181-192 ventrals; 52-62 subcaudals.
Colour blackish or brown above; end of snout and cheeks yellow; belly
yellow or pale brown, with or without black cross-bar under the neck.
Total length, 1,800 millimetres; tail 340.
_Habitat_: Angola and Ovamboland.
(6) _N. goldii._--Eyes large, two-thirds the length of the snout
in adults. Scales in 15 rows on the neck and on the body; 194--195
ventrals; 88 subcaudals.
Colour black, uniform, or with transverse series of small whitish
spots; cheeks and end of snout white, with a black border at the margin
of the shields; belly white in front, black behind; subcaudal scales
black.
Total length, 1,750 millimetres.
_Habitat_: Lower Niger.
(d) =Sepedon.=
Maxillary bones projecting considerably beyond the palatines, with a
pair of large poison-fangs; no other maxillary teeth. Head not distinct
from neck; eyes of moderate size, with round pupils; nostril between
two nasal shields and an internasal. Body cylindrical; scales oblique,
keeled, in 19 rows; ventrals rounded. Tail moderate; subcaudal scales
in 2 rows.
_S. hæmachates_ (The Spitting Snake, or Ring Hals Slang).--This snake,
which is about 700 millimetres in length, is of a bluish-brown colour,
with numerous narrow, undulating and denticulate cross-bands of yellow
or yellowish-white. The throat is black or dark red; the belly grey.
It is met with throughout West, East, and South Africa, as far as the
Cape of Good Hope, where it is very common. It lives among bushes in
sandy places, where the ground is full of the holes of rats, moles,
and small rodents, upon which it feeds. It is very active and exhibits
great ferocity.
Natives at the Cape declare that this snake is able to project its
venom to a distance of more than a yard, especially if the wind is
blowing in the same direction, and that, if the poison happens to enter
the eye, the inflammation that results therefrom often leads to loss of
sight (Smith).
As to this, a very definite statement is given by Bavay,[4] on the
authority of Le Naour:--
“While hunting in Dahomey,” wrote Le Naour to Bavay, “I thrice met with
the snake called the _Spitter_. On two occasions my dog was struck
in both eyes by the liquid projected by the reptile. Immediately
(less than two minutes afterwards), symptoms of conjunctivitis
manifested themselves, with considerable swelling of the pupils; the
conjunctivitis seemed as though it were going to be very serious, and
yielded only after twelve days’ treatment with boracic lotion, aided
by a few cauterisations with sulphate of copper.
“During my sojourn at Porto-Novo, a store-keeper at the Dogba trading
station was a victim of the _Spitter_. While working at his store
he received in his eye a jet of liquid, which produced violent
conjunctivitis.”
(e) =Aspidelaps.=
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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