The Mongoose and the Cobra

Abstract

IN reading the interesting account of a fight between these two animals, as given in NATURE for Jan. 11 (p. 204), the question arises, How does the mongoose survive the bite of the cobra? There are only two solutions of this question, viz.:—(1) That the mongoose has some antidote; and (2) that it is not affected by the cobra poison. With regard to the first, various observers give different antidotes, such as grass, Aristolochia, &c. (see Sir J. E. Tennent's “Natural History of Ceylon,” p. 38). There is no one plant that the mongoose has been proved to go to as a remedy. 2. That the mongoose is not poisoned by the bite of the cobra has, I think, been proved by Dr. Fayrer, of Calcutta. I quote three of his experiments, which are published in the Edinburgh Medical Journal, April 1869, PP. 917–919:—“A young mongoose (Herpesfes Malacconsis) was bitten two or three times by a full-grown cobra, at 1.24 P.M. on the 30th April 1868, on the inner side of the thigh from which the hair was first removed. Blood was drawn by the bites.” This animal died in six minutes, but in the two following experiments no harm resulted to the mongoose. The second mongoose was also “bitten on the inner side of the thigh, and put into a cage immediately.” It got no antidote except “raw meat,” and was none the worse for the bite. The third mongoose was put into a large wire cage with a full-sized cobra at 1 P.M. (April 2, 1868). “The snake struck at the mongoose, and they grappled with each other frequently, and apparently the mongoose must have been bitten, as the snake held on to it about the neck or head. At 1.15 P.M. there was no effect on the mongoose; both it and the snake were much excited and angry, the snake hissing violently. 2.30; no effect on the mongoose. The snake is bitten about the head, and shows the bleeding wounds. 2.51; they are both occasionally darting at each other, but the mongoose jumps over the snake, and tries to avoid it. Next day at noon both were well; the snake frequently struck at the mongoose, but did not appear to injure it; both seemed very savage, but the mongoose would not bite the snake; he jumped over it. There had been two cobras in the cage during the night, both equally fierce, and striking each other and the mongoose; but the latter was uninjured. He was bitten once by the cobra rather severely on the head.”