Surgery On Snakes

Snakes in captivity, it seems, sometimes flud diffiuulty iu gettiug rid o1 the skin which is shod every year, and an Australian diamond suake in the Bombay museum appeared likely to succumb. It was quite blind and refused all food. A European syinpathizer therefore pressed the native snake k,eeper into service to hold the snake, and himselJ with a pair of sharp pointed scissors performed the delicate and risky operation of clipping away the membrane ■which adhered to the eyes. J. M. PhipsoD, editor of The Journal of the Bombay Natural History society, performed a far more dangerous operation a couple of years ago. His patiënt was a large hamadryad, or king cobra, the most vicious and poisonous of all Indian snakes, and a most powerful creature to boot. Mr. Phipson gripped the king cobra round the neck, and a native literally held on for his life furfcher down, and when the reptile's struggles were over a' third man, armed with a surgeon's scalpel, removed eight iayers of membrane from each eve. -