202 Recent Researches on Snake Poison. [Sess. 



know the story of Queen Eleanor sucking the poison-wound of 

 her husband, King Edward. In like manner, snake wounds 

 have often been sucked. It follows from Dr "Weir Mitchell's 

 discovery that this would be safe in viper poisoning, provided 

 there was no cut in the lips of the person who sucked, but 

 would always be unsafe in cobra poisoning. 



There is a well-known story of a botanist who wrote a book 

 on the structure of the leaf of the laurel. It rather puzzled his 

 readers, till they discovered that the plant he had been examin- 

 ing was not the sweet-scented but the cherry laurel. Equally 

 off the point are all observations on cobra poison, if applied to 

 viper poison ; or on viper poison, if applied to cobra poison. 



Eecently, my friend Dr Cunningham, of Calcutta, has 

 studied the symptoms resulting from cobra bite and viper bite. 

 He finds that the poison of the cobra is a blood poison, or 

 ferment, and that it kills by inducing changes in the blood 

 which unfits it for the respiratory demands of the system. It 

 kills as carbonic oxide does in coal-gas poisoning. There is 

 increased lachrymal, nasal, and salivary secretion, with occa- 

 sional nausea and vomiting. This is followed by paralysis, 

 especially of the hind limbs, and by asphyxia, coma, and 

 anaesthesia. Eeduced haemoglobin replaces oxyhemoglobin, 

 and when this has occurred to the extent of thirty per cent, 

 death from asphyxia ensues. It is not a nerve poison, as 

 almost all previous writers have supposed. This is proved by 

 the existence of a latent period, however large the dose may 

 be. In true nerve poisons, such as strychnia, a large dose kills 

 instantaneously. Thus cobra poison is a simple blood poison. 



With regard to viper poison, Dr Cunningham shows that 

 what occurs, or may occur, is much more complicated. Viper 

 venom contains two very different poisonous principles — (1) 

 a nerve poison, with local muscular action ; (2) a septic 

 poison, causing effusions of blood both at the site of the bite 

 and throughout the body, resembling somewhat the effects of 

 subcutaneous injection of comma bacillus. With cobra poison 

 there is a latent period, then death, if at all, within twenty- 

 four hours. With viper poisoning there is either instant death, 

 or death after three or four days, preceded by the appearance 

 of sanguinolent effusions. For a day or two the person bitten 

 may show no symptoms whatever. 



Another observation of Dr Cunningham's is that cobra 



