23 



the innoculation is fraught with much danger, 

 being as yet merely in the experimental stage, 

 though I fully believe it has been practised for 

 many years by Indian and Burmese snake- 

 charmers. 



What is still required for the cure of snake 

 bite is, not so much a remedy — of which there are 

 many good ones — which will absorb and neutralize 

 the poison, but either a means by which this 

 neutralizer may be enabled to reach the poison, or 

 a treatment for keeping up the vitality of a patient 

 until the poison becomes absorbed by the system. 

 If there has been much delay after the bite, local 

 treatment is practically useless, and everything 

 depends on a general treatment of the system. 



The poison of the Opisthoglypha, the back- 

 fanged snakes, is so slight as to be hardly notice- 

 able to human beings whom they have bitten, but 

 it probably paralyses the small birds and reptiles 

 on which they live. The reason for this is explain- 

 able in the case of the Tree-snakes, which have 

 very thin skins, as the struggles of their prey when 

 caught would probably injure the delicate skin of 

 their throats were it not for the poison contained 

 in the back fangs, which paralyses the victim. The 

 skins of some of these snakes arc so delicate as to 

 be transparent when dry. 



I have allowed specimens of Dipsas and 

 Dryophis to bite me, but have never felt any 

 appreciable effect of the poison, but a " bungalow 

 servant " who was bitten by a large Dryophis 

 Mycterizans suffered from local pain and swelling 

 for a couple of days. A young wild kitten I kept 

 died in great pain from the bite of the above snake, 

 which I found in its box about two hours after 

 receiving the bite, the symptoms being giddiness, 

 ^followed by spasms, and insensibility. 



