159 



In an avei'age case of snake-bite the following points are 

 in favour of recovery : — 



1° The person may have been bitten through clothing. 

 The penetration of a cobra's fangs is hardly more 

 than one-eighth of an inch, never a quarter of an 

 inch, so that a very thin cloth will reduce the 

 depth considerably, perhaps sufficiently for the 

 apical orifice of the fang (which is nearly j\ inch 

 above the point) to be scarcely beneath the sur- 

 face of the skin.* 



2° The bite may have been a scratch rather than the 

 strong and vicious bite necessary for the injec- 

 tion of poison. 



3° The snake mav not have been of a venomous kind. 

 Unless the snake is produced and recognized as 

 a fairly grown specimen belonging to the kinds 

 fatal to human life, there is no certainty. The 

 statement of Indians is rarely worth anything."|- 



Of land-snakes, the cobra, the dahoia and large specimens 

 of Bungarus arcuatus are practically the only Indian snakes 

 danoferous to human life. In Burma the last mentioned 

 snake is replaced by B. fasciatus. 



In an undoubted case of deadly-snake bite, I do not consider 

 that any good is done by other measures than the immediate 

 local treatment. There appears to be not the slightest use in 



* Here is one fallacy of the Australian cures. The longest fanged 

 Australian snake has fangs about half the length of a cobra's, so 

 that the penetration could never exceed one-eighth inch, and would 

 generally be about one-sixteenth ; the most flimsy cloth would in the 

 majority of cases prevent the bite taking effect. 



1 1 have seen an intelligent Englishman, considered rather an 

 authority on snakes, declare that a Ptyas mucoms just brought to me 

 was a cobra ; he even pointed out the poison-fangs. 



