228 SPOLTA ZE7LANTCA. 



fatal, their determination not only stands in constant request, 

 but may even assume a medico-legal or statistical importance. 



In the Vital Statistics issued by the Registrar-General of Ceylon 

 for the year 1903, the number of deaths attributed to snake-bite 

 during that year amounted to 217, and the average from 1898 to 

 1902 is given as 198. In 1904 the number of deaths from snake- 

 bite was 174, and the average from 1898 to 1903, 201'2, or in 

 round numbers 200 per annum. 



In the Indian Empire, which is roughly about seventy times as 

 large as Ceylon both in area and population, there' is only 

 a slightly greater proportion of deaths attributed to snake-bite 

 annually ; namely, about 20,000. 



I believe it rarely happens that the offending reptile is caught 

 and identified, so that statistical tables give little or no informa- 

 tion concerning the number of victims claimed by different 

 species of poisonous snakes. 



Last September a Malay woman living in Colombo was bitten 

 by a snake during the night while she was asleep. She must 

 have unconsciously alarmed the snake in some way, other- 

 wise it would not have bitten her. A vedarala was called in, but 

 the woman was beyond help, and died within twelve hours. 

 The snake had been caught and killed at the time of the accident 

 and was subsequently sent to the Museum by the Coroner for 

 identification. It proved to be a dangerous poisonous snake of 

 the kind called " bungarum " or, in Northern India, ' krait," in 

 Sinhalese " karawala." 



Two months later, in November (1905), another snake was sent 

 to me from Mullaittivu by Mr. R. A. G. Festing, C.C.S., with the 

 information that it had bitten and killed a woman two nights 

 previously. This time the snake was a harmless one and very 

 common in Ceylon. Lycodon milieus, often called *' karawala" or 

 " tel-karawala " through confusion with Biwgarv a, since it 

 resembles the latter very strikingly and may be said to mimic it. 

 It was generally believed that the victim in this case had died o1 

 fright, since it appeared from the evidence at the inquest that she 

 had been bitten, twelve small punctures being visible on the 

 right forearm. 



Bimgaius maybe recognized at once by the circumstance that 

 the median dorsal or vertebral scales are much enlarged ; in 

 Lycodon the scales are equal. It is, however, partly owing to the 

 extraordinary parallel series of colour variations in poisonous and 

 harmless snakes, giving the impression of a natural mimicry, that 

 so much confusion exists with regard to the vernacular names in 

 this country. There are also other sources of confusion. The 



