SNAKEBITE ACCIDENTS happen more frequently in the United States than most people realize. Recent estimates (1) of about 1,000 to 2,000 such accidents annually have been far too low. There have been surprisingly few studies of the magnitude of the incidence. Willson (2) in 1908 reviewed 740 snakebite cases spanning several years; data on 440 of these were collected from reviewing the literature; information on the remainder was assembled from various private sources. Hutchison (3^) described 607 case reports of snake venom poisonings in the United States occurring dur¬ ing 1928 and 482 reports of poisonings occurring during 1929. These case histories were obtained from newspaper clippings and report forms distributed in packages of antivenin. Since antivenin was not widely used or distributed in this country before 1928, Hutchison's study probably underestimated the incidence of poisonous snakebites. By similar methods, Githens (5) collected information on 2,376 cases of snakebite which occurred in the United States from 1927 through 1934. Thus, before the pres¬ ent study there never had been a systematic, nationwide study of snakebite accidents.

Human and Environmental Factors AKECENT survey of animal bites in se¬ lected areas of the United States showed a "reported" animal bite rate of 362 per 100,000 human population per year (1). In the same study it was estimated that about 611,500 per¬ sons were bitten by animals in the United States Dr. Parrish is assistant professor of preventive medicine, University of Vermont College of Medi¬ cine, Burlington. Dr. Clack, the senior author of "Characteristics of Biting Dogs," the second section of this paper, is chief public health veterinarian, and Dr. Mock, public health veterinarian, of the

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