326 nURMA, ITS PEOPLE ASP PliODCVTluyS. 



5. Symptoms of poisoning after an effective bite arc visible after the lapse of a 

 few secoiuls only, and should the poison have penetrated a large vessel, death may 

 result witliin the minute, though such a case is of course rare. 



6. The bite of a poisonous snake seems to exercise no influence on another 

 poisonous snake, of the same family, or on itself, but is fatal, though slowly, to a 

 harmless snake. 



7. The most deadly poison seems to bo that secreted by the two Najas and 

 Eussell's viper, and scarcely less potent is that of tlio Echis, the Buugari, and Hytko- 

 phida3. The poison of the Indian Crotalidte, however, though certainly occasionally 

 fatal, is not perhaps usually so, and there is always fiiir presumption of recovery from 

 the bite of our green vipers (Trimeresurus). 



8. Specific remedies or antidotes for snake-poisoning there are none. "Where the 

 bite has been, from any cause, only partiallj^ effective, diffusible stimulants, as 

 ammonia and alcoholic mixtures, may be resorted to with benefit, to aid tlie flagging 

 powers of life. 



9. Cases have often occurred of men bitten by harmless snakes exhibiting symp- 

 toms of most alarming prostration, and being reduced to a moribund condition through 

 fear only, so that every endeavour should be made to secure the snalie, as its recogni- 

 tion as a harmless species is all that is wanted in such case to effect cure. 



In the Madras Monthly Jounial of Medical Science for November, 1870, Dr. E. 

 Nicholson has a paper on some popular errors regarding Indian snakes. Dr. Nicholson's 

 views on the true reason of the immunity of some snake- catchers from serious lesults 

 from snake bite, are very curious, and deserving of full investigation, as he sees reason 

 to attribute it to a continuous system of inoculation with snake venom, the result of 

 which is that the elder men among the Burmese snake-charmers possess greater powers 

 of withstanding snake poison, than the younger, owing to the more perfect protection 

 enjoyed by them from inoculation persevered in through many years. I doubt the fact 

 myself, but it is certainly a cuiious assertion, to emanate, without good reason, from an 

 Assistant Surgeon who for years has made these animals his companions, as well as 

 snbjects for study. 



Order SAUKIA. 



Scaled reptiles, usually possessing eyelids and limbs, both never absent. The 

 rami of the mandible united by a bony symphysis, and incapable therefore of dilatation 

 like the jaws of snakes. Teeth adnate to the jaws, not in sockets. Vent linear, 

 transverse. Tongue single or double. Reproductive organs double. 



Fainihj Varanidse. 

 Vauanus, Merrem. 



Nostrils in an oblique slit between the eye and snout. Scales elliptic, subtan- 

 gential. Tail compressed vertically. 5 claws on all feet. 

 V. NEBtrxosus, Gray. 



Nostril nearer the eye than the nose. Scales of neck and back obtusely keeled. 

 Superciliary scales enlarged. 



V. DEAC^NA, L. 



Nostril midway between eye and nose. Scales smooth. Superciliary scales 

 small. 



V. FiAVESCENS, Gray. 



Nostril nearer the nose than the eye. Scales strongly keeled. Superciliary 

 scales unequal. 



All these species occur in Burma, and attain to about fifty inches. The tail is 

 vertically compressed in all. 



Htdeosattrus, Wagler. . 



Nostrils rounded, near the end of the snout. 



