Poisonous Snakes of the World [Paperback]

U S Dept of the Navy (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 232 pages
• Publisher: Dover Publications (March 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 048626629X
• ISBN-13: 978-0486266299
• Product Dimensions: 10.9 x 8.4 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,353,797 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Informative but has not been updated., January 20, 1999

By 

[e-mail] (Los Angeles,CA,USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Poisonous Snakes of the World (Paperback)

I purchased this in 1997 from Dover books which claimed that it had been updated. When I compared it with the original hardback from the 1960's it was obvious that it had not been updated. Despite this, it is still an informative book for those interested in poisonous snakes.

4.0 out of 5 stars Useful poisonous/venomous snake guide, July 3, 2010

By 

Randy J. Mercurio (Morrisville, NC USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Poisonous Snakes of the World (Paperback)

Disregard the reviewers commenting that this book should have been named "Venomous Snakes of the World" as opposed to "Poisonous Snakes of the World." Herpetologists and other scientists like to distinguish between a poison and venom. In general, poisonous substances are viewed as things that need to be ingested, inhaled or otherwise contacted in some way, while venoms are proteinaceous poisons typically injected by a bite or sting. Would not a spitting cobra have to be called a poisonous snake if it spit venom in your eye, the venom entered your blood stream via the capillaries in your eye and killed you? You would have been poisoned by a venom, not envenomated by a bite or sting, right? So all venoms are potential poisons but not all poisons are venoms!

In any case, this book may be old but it still has useful information and it was designed for the purpose of training and assisting in military operations. It has 8 color plates with real images and colored paintings. There are other black and white photos, keys to genera, maps for large geographic regions and each species entry has a brief section of identification, distribution and remarks. There are some line drawings of some species' head scutes/scales (dorasal, ventral and some lateral). This book certainly delivers for it's intended purpose.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Other reviewer is exactly right, March 9, 2009

By 

RavenGeo - See all my reviews

This review is from: Poisonous Snakes of the World (Paperback)

I actually work at a zoo as a herpetologist and have to constantly tell people, if it bites you and you die, it's venomous, if you eat it or rub on it and you die, it's poisonous. There are no such things as venomous mushrooms!. SNAKES ARE VENOMOUS! Hard to believe they made that mistake.