What Makes the Poison in a Snakes Fangs?
A snake’s fang is an eye-tooth, or canine tooth. This tooth corresponds to the sharp-pointed teeth we have at the corners of the jaw between the front and back teeth. In poisonous snakes, the tooth has a special channel inside it through which poison travels when the snake bites. But where does the poison come from? A poisonous snake has glands, similar to human salivary glands. (Salivary glands produce the saliva needed for our mastication and digestion of food.) In the snake, these glands produce poison. The poison runs along a little tube from the glands on each side of the snake’s mouth to its fangs. When the snake bites, the jaw muscles also squeeze the glands. Poison is forced from the gland through the channel in the fang and left in the victim’s body. In non-poisonous snakes, these same glands look just the same yet produce no poison. Although the amount of poison injected may be very small, the poison of venomous snakes is among the deadliest of all poisons. With some snakes,
