Through the Brazilian Wilderness | Page 6

alarmed. Others
are excessively irritable, and on rare occasions will even attack of their
own accord when entirely unprovoked and unthreatened.
On reaching Sao Paulo on our southward journey from Rio to
Montevideo, we drove out to the "Instituto Serumtherapico," designed
for the study of the effects of the venom of poisonous Brazilian snakes.
Its director is Doctor Vital Brazil, who has performed a most
extraordinary work and whose experiments and investigations are not
only of the utmost value to Brazil but will ultimately be recognized as
of the utmost value for humanity at large. I know of no institution of
similar kind anywhere. It has a fine modern building, with all the best
appliances, in which experiments are carried on with all kinds of
serpents, living and dead, with the object of discovering all the
properties of their several kinds of venom, and of developing various
anti-venom serums which nullify the effects of the different venoms.
Every effort is made to teach the people at large by practical
demonstration in the open field the lessons thus learned in the
laboratory. One notable result has been the diminution in the mortality
from snake-bites in the province of Sao Paulo.
In connection with his institute, and right by the laboratory, the doctor
has a large serpentarium, in which quantities of the common poisonous
and non-poisonous snakes are kept, and some of the rarer ones. He has
devoted considerable time to the effort to find out if there are any
natural enemies of the poisonous snakes of his country, and he has
discovered that the most formidable enemy of the many dangerous
Brazilian snakes is a non-poisonous, entirely harmless, rather
uncommon Brazilian snake, the mussurama. Of all the interesting
things the doctor showed us, by far the most interesting was the
opportunity of witnessing for ourselves the action of the mussurama
toward a dangerous snake.
The doctor first showed us specimens of the various important snakes,
poisonous and non-poisonous, in alcohol. Then he showed us
preparations of the different kinds of venom and of the different

anti-venom serums, presenting us with some of the latter for our use on
the journey. He has been able to produce two distinct kinds of
anti-venom serum, one to neutralize the virulent poison of the
rattlesnake's bite, the other to neutralize the poison of the different
snakes of the lachecis genus. These poisons are somewhat different and
moreover there appear to be some differences between the poisons of
the different species of lachecis; in some cases the poison is nearly
colorless, and in others, as in that of the jararaca, whose poison I saw, it
is yellow.
But the vital difference is that between all these poisons of the pit-
vipers and the poisons of the colubrine snakes, such as the cobra and
the coral-snake. As yet the doctor has not been able to develop an
anti-venom serum which will neutralize the poison of these colubrine
snakes. Practically this is a matter of little consequence in Brazil, for
the Brazilian coral-snakes are dangerous only when mishandled by
some one whose bare skin is exposed to the bite. The numerous
accidents and fatalities continually occurring in Brazil are almost
always to be laid to the account of the several species of lachecis and
the single species of rattlesnake.
Finally, the doctor took us into his lecture-room to show us how he
conducted his experiments. The various snakes were in boxes, on one
side of the room, under the care of a skilful and impassive assistant,
who handled them with the cool and fearless caution of the doctor
himself. The poisonous ones were taken out by means of a
long-handled steel hook. All that is necessary to do is to insert this
under the snake and lift him off the ground. He is not only unable to
escape, but he is unable to strike, for he cannot strike unless coiled so
as to give himself support and leverage. The table on which the snakes
are laid is fairly large and smooth, differing in no way from an ordinary
table.
There were a number of us in the room, including two or three
photographers. The doctor first put on the table a non-poisonous but
very vicious and truculent colubrine snake. It struck right and left at us.
Then the doctor picked it up, opened its mouth, and showed that it had
no fangs, and handed it to me. I also opened its mouth and examined its
teeth, and then put it down, whereupon, its temper having been much
ruffled, it struck violently at me two or three times. In its action and

temper this snake was quite as vicious as the most irritable poisonous
snakes. Yet it is entirely harmless. One of the innumerable mysteries of
nature which are at present