ON THE COMMON INDIAN SNAKES. 731 



set in. Frothy matter, and a quantity of phlegm-like mucous passed 

 with great difficulty from the mouth and nostrils. Towards the climax 

 he had two convulsive seizures, and he died apparently from suffocation 

 at about 7 p.m. the same day. It was observed that the heart 

 pulsated some time after breathing had ceased. Further Colonel 

 Dawson says, " There have been several cases of death from bites of 

 the krait here lately, in ail of which the prominent symptoms were 

 burning pain of the bitten part, rigidity of the neck and pain in the 

 abdomen." He was informed by his head-keeper that a neighbour's 

 boy of 6 or 7 years of age had awaked one morning recently with an 

 intense pain in the abdomen. He was treated in hospital for stomach- 

 ache, and sent home. On moving the mat on which the child had 

 slept a krait was discovered. A train of symptoms very similar to 

 those experienced by the keeper who died followed, and the child 

 died. No mark of a puncture could be found on the body. 



Lieut-Colonel Dimmock, I.M.S., has kindly communicated the 

 following interesting case : A Hindu male, aged 35, was bitten on the 

 dorsum of the right foot at ll.«p.m. on the 29th November 1907 by 

 a small krait " about two feet long" identified as such at the Parel 

 Laboratory. At the Railway Hospital, Bombay, two punctures half 

 an inch apart at the seat of the reported bite were slightly incised, 

 and permanganate of potash applied. He was transferred to the 

 Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy Hospital where the punctures were freely incised, 

 and permanganate crystals rubbed in. On admission he was reported 

 as " suffering from fright, pretended to be insensible but is quite con- 

 scious." . . " In the night his pulse became slow and feeble, and 

 respirations shallow, and hurried. Next morning he was quite well 

 and went home at noon." Internally he was treated with ammonia, 

 and hypodermically with strychnia. The dose of poison injected may 

 have been small, but whatever the dose it certainly appears as if 

 the permanganate had very completely neutralised its action as no 

 symptoms occurred other than those directly referable to fright. 

 Ammonia and strychnia have both been proved powerless agents in 

 snake bite, though, of course, they are powerful restoratives in 

 combating fright. 



Poison apparatus. Fangs. — These structures are relatively small 

 when contrasted with those of vipers, and even perhaps with that of the 



