SCIENCE AND THE SNAKE
-[To- the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.] SIR,—I noted Dr. Sherwood Taylor's reply to Mr. Rodenhurst in your issue of July 9th, where he quotes as his authority the Director of the Institute Butantan and of the Anti-venin Institute of America. In 1919 I paid my third visit to Brazil, when I travelled some 750 miles from Sao Paulo to the rail head at Roncador, and thence by mule train some 400 miles into the interior of Goyaz—a part which had not been visited by any European for sixty years. When in Sao Paulo prior to going up country I went out to the Instituto Butantan, specially to investigate- this matter of snakes- and 'the use of anti-venin serum, and the following information was given to me by one of the staff, through my interpreter.
Tree snakes are not venomous, and not more than ten per cent. of others. No snake strikes at a greater height' than one-third of its length, so that leather gaiters are a com- plete protection, unless the arms and face are lowered. This is borne out by the wax models in the Butantan Museum, where the snake bites illustrated are confined to lower legs and arms. Such victims are mainly labourers in the fields, who work with their lower limbs, feet and arms quite naked. We had eight Brazilians in our expedition, but fortunately none was bitten, although we saw many and killed several snakes. In every instance our Brazilians assured me that the snake was " very venomous," though from the information given me at Butantan not more than one in ten is dangerous.
I was by no means prejudiced against anti-venin serum, and took a supply with me up country. Had one or all our Brazilians been bitten I should probably have used it, and registered remarkable " cures," although possibly there had been no danger. Personally, I cannot accept the assurance that the one serum can be specific against all the varieties of snake venom, and had I been bitten I should have trusted to the excision of the wound, with application of permanganate of potash and liberal drinks of brandy. When in Sao Paulo, the friend who advised me to take a supply of serum admitted that he did not know of a case of its successful use ; death was usually so sudden—within fifteen or twenty minutes— that it was not available in time. It is quite possible that the deaths from snake-bite have declined in Sao Paulo State, but before crediting this to anti-venin serum we should know what proportion of bitten cases were so treated.
I know nothing about the compilation of statistics in Brazil, but with the population so scattered such figures must be the wildest estimates. Brazil is twenty-four times the area of Great Britain, but has only one-third of our population. In England we have 35o persons per square mile ; in the province of Goyaz, which is twice the area of Great Britain, there are three square miles to every person. There may be a system of birth and death registration in Sao Paulo—I don't know— but to extend the statistics of such a settled province as Sao Paulo to the whole of Brazil is absurd. From my experience of the interior, the inhabitants there are cut off from the outside world, even from Sao Paulo and the other coastal provinces, and the outside world knows nothing of them. How can anti-venin serum be available at a moment's notice in such a scattered population ? The fact is that, up country, the simplest medicines, such as quinine, are almost impossible to get, and there is no medical service. It must thus be evident that, if deaths from snake-bite have declined, the improvement cannot have been brought about by the use of
anti-venin serum .—Yours truly, ARTHUR TROBRIDGE. 5 Flora Avenue, Darlington.
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