It had long been known that hedgehogs are inveterate hunters of vipers, which they devour with avidity. Thanks to the long and sharp spines by which their bodies are protected, they avoid being bitten and contrive to catch the reptiles very cleverly, but it occasionally happens that they do not escape being struck. However, even in these cases they rarely succumb.
Inoculation with fairly large quantities of venom does not make them ill: the dose of viper-venom lethal for these small animals is about forty times greater than that which kills the guinea-pig. Their power of resistance is therefore beyond doubt.
It may be asked whether this is due to their blood normally containing antitoxic substances. In order to elucidate this question, Phisalix and Bertrand first proved that the blood of normal hedgehogs is toxic to laboratory animals, especially to the guinea-pig. A mixture of this blood with viper-venom cannot therefore be harmless. But it sufficed to heat hedgehog blood to 58° C. to cause it to lose its toxicity, and it was found that it then became antitoxic. Guinea-pigs inoculated in the peritoneum with 8 c.c. of heated hedgehog-serum were able to withstand, immediately afterwards, twice the lethal dose of viper-venom.
It really seems, therefore, that the resistance of the hedgehog to venom is due to the presence of antitoxic substances in its blood. But, as in the case of the mongoose, there is no question here of genuine immunity.
The same is probably true with respect to the herons of Colombia, the Culebrero and Guacabo, which eagerly search after young snakes for food. No investigations, however, have yet been made upon this subject.
These birds, moreover, are few in number; hunters pursue them for the sake of their brilliantly coloured plumage, and it is to be regretted that no attempt is made to prevent their destruction or to acclimatise them in countries in which poisonous snakes constitute a veritable calamity, such as Martinique, St. Lucia, or India.
CHAPTER XII.
SNAKE-CHARMERS.
In all the countries of the globe where poisonous snakes are formidable to man, there are certain individuals who profess to be secure from all ill-effects from the bites of these reptiles, whether because they are immune to venom, or because they possess secrets which enable them to cure themselves when they happen to have been bitten. Not unnaturally these secrets are sometimes turned to profitable account, and the possessors of them generally enjoy considerable popular influence, and are very highly venerated. Intimate relations with the divinities are freely attributed to them.
Among the Romans the jugglers who carried on the profession of snake-charmers and healers of snake-bites were known as Psylli. Plutarch tells us that Cato, who loved not doctors because they were Greeks, attached a certain number of them to the army of Libya. They were accustomed to expose their children to serpents as soon as they were born, and the mothers, if they had failed in conjugal fidelity, were infallibly punished by the death of their offspring. If, on the contrary, the children were lawful, they had nothing to fear from the bites of the reptiles. “Recens etiam editos serpentibus offerebant; si essent partus adulteri, matrum crimina plectabantur interitu parvulorum; si pudici, probos ortus a morte paterni privilegium tuebatur” (Solinus).
The Libyian Psylli of antiquity still have their representatives in Tunis and in Egypt. Clot Bey writes as follows with reference to the Egyptian Psylli:—