554 ' SNAKES. 



the accidental lack of essential remedies, there is no hope 

 for them. They are said to resign hope when bitten by the 

 little Peruvian viper {Echis ocellatd), in the very heart of the 

 tropics, and as deadly as the little ediis of India. In 

 every case the symptoms point to the exhaustion of the 

 nerve centres, and the rapid decomposition of the blood. 



The venom appears to be an indestructible fluid. Toxi- 

 cally it remains unaltered whether boiled or frozen, or 

 mixed with the strongest corrosives. Diluted in water, 

 alcohol, or blood, it is still equally injurious. The blood 

 of an animal killed by a bite, if injected into the veins 

 of another animal, kills that one also ; and the blood of 

 the second one killed is similarly fatal to a third, and the 

 third to the fourth, and so on through a series of animals. 

 Also so small a quantity is fatal where no remedies 

 are attempted, that a venomous serpent can kill six or 

 eight animals one after another ; each one, bitten in suc- 

 cession, succumbing more slowly, it is true, but still dying 

 at last. Fayrer found that no less than nine creatures could 

 thus be affected by one cobra. A dog, a pigeon, and seven 

 fowls were bitten one after the other: the dog, first bitten 

 and receiving the largest injection of venom, died in thirty- 

 three minutes; a fowl, next bitten, in three minutes; the 

 third, in ten minutes ; the fourth bitten, in eleven ; the fifth, in 

 seventeen minutes ; but the ninth bitten, a fowl, when the 

 poison gland was exhausted, recovered after a time. And 

 the same effect is seen in much larger animals than fowls. 

 Fayrer also tells of four men bitten in succession by one 

 cobra, only the last one bitten receiving treatment, and 

 recovering slowly after many days. The facts prove 



