To gain this end, the moral and financial support of the Administration was indispensable, and this did not fail us. Acting on our suggestion, as formulated by letter on May 25, 1901, Governor Rodier, on June 11, issued an order by the terms of which a sum of 200 rupees was placed at the disposal of the Chief of the Sanitary Service, “with a view to encourage the catching of poisonous snakes, and to assist the collection of snake-venom by the granting of bounties to natives.”
On the issue of this order, we drew up instructions for the collection of venom, which we caused to be distributed to all posts in the Colony. At the same time an appeal in the vernacular was posted up in each of our sanitary institutions, inviting the Hindus to commence the campaign forthwith. The notice placarded on the door of the Pondicherry Hospital ran as follows:—
“Public Notice.
“For the public good the Governor requests the population to capture poisonous snakes in all places where they are found; to take them alive if possible; and to bring them to the Hospital without removing their fangs.
“One rupee will immediately be paid for each snake brought in.
“Those who read this notice are requested to communicate it to their acquaintances.”
The Indian snake-charmers at once responded to this appeal, and the harvest of snakes was soon abundant. The first provision of 200 rupees, allotted to us by the Administration in June, 1901, had to be successively renewed in May and October, 1902. Since then, on the proposition of our successor, Dr. Camail, this sum of 200 rupees has been included in the local budget, thus definitively sanctioning the principle of the collection of venom in our Indian Settlements.
The venom forwarded by us to France has been exclusively derived from the cobra, or Naja tripudians. Other venomous serpents are found in the French Settlements in India, especially the species of Hydrophis, or sea-snakes; but the cobra is by far the commonest species, and our trading stations teem with it. Yanaon is infested by it at all seasons, but especially at the time when the Godavari is in flood; the reptiles then make their way towards spots spared by the inundation, and the natives frequently kill them in their houses. Thus M. Mariapregassam, the Sanitary Officer in charge of the the Medical Service of this dependency, was in a position to procure for us, at the very commencement of our operations, important doses of venom: it should be added that he acquitted himself of this task with a perseverance and devotion worthy of the fullest recognition. Of the 653 cobras captured between August 1, 1901, and February 23, 1903, 229, or more than one-third, were furnished by Yanaon. Moreover, the cost price of the cobra fell in proportion to its numbers, and Yanaon paid for its snakes on the average at the rate of 33 centimes apiece; while at Chandarnagar and Pondicherry the snake-charmers frequently received 1 rupee (1 franc 67 centimes) per reptile, though it is true that even this was an extremely poor remuneration, when we consider the risk of the calling.
Again, owing to the limited amount of our grants, we were obliged to restrict our expenditure, regulating the purchase-price of the snakes according to the quantity of venom collected. Thus at Pondicherry, having observed that each cobra yielded on an average twenty drops of venom, we fixed the value of two drops at one fanon (one-eighth of a rupee), never more. In this way it was decidedly to the snake-charmer’s interest to bring us fresh snakes, and not such as had been previously deprived of their venom.