THE POISONOUS SNAKES OF INDIA. 17 



Distribution. — From Southern China and the Malayan Subregion, it 

 extends through Tenasserim to the Basins of the Irrawaddy and the 

 Brahmaputra, South of the Himalayas. It is only known from Penin- 

 sula India in the North East corresponding roughly to the Basin of 

 the Mahanadi River.* North of the Ganges the most Western limit 

 1 know of is Bettiah (N.-W. Behar). 



Poison. — Rogers! estimates the virulence of the poison at about gg 

 that of the common krait B. ccernleus. Burmans, who as a race are 

 good observers and not given to romancing like so many of their 

 oriental brethren, declare that the bite is not fatal to man, and as the 

 snake is a very common one in their Province, and very distinctively 

 coloured, I think this testimony worthy of credence. Fayrert mentions 

 one case of bite from this snake. A woman at Tavoy was bitten on 

 the dorsum of the right foot. She suffered tingling, and swelling 

 locally, and some pain in the leg and thigh of that side, but recovered 

 without any constitutional effects. She was treated with ammonia 

 internally, and ipecacuanha, chloroform, and ammonia locally, none of 

 which we know have the slightest beneficial effects in snake bite. 



Russell's ^ experiment on a fowl caused it to die 26 minutes 

 after being bitten. Fayrer§ tested its effect on fowls, death being 

 caused in 17, 18 and 26 minutes, 1 hour 55 minutes, and 26 hours 18 

 minutes. 



* There is one specimen in the British Museum presented by Colonel Beddome, and 

 labelled from the Anamallays. This ia the sole record of this snake in Peninsula India 

 outside the limits specified above. 



The accuracy of Beddoma's record is shattered by the following facts. He records no 

 less than 7 other spscies froni Southern India, not known otherwise from this area. These 

 are Tropidonotus paraUdus, T. siibminiatas, T. himalai/nnus, Lycodon jara, Simotes splendidus, 

 S. octolineatus, and Di'iidrelaphis caudolincatus. All of these snakes are known otherwise 

 from areas in which Bungarus fasciatns occurs. Now it is certain that Beddome received 

 snakes from Burma and Tenasserim because there are specimens in the British and Indian 

 Museums presented by him from those areas, viz., Simotes cruentatuf, S. violaceus, S. cychirus 

 and Dipsadomorphus hexagonotns. From these facts it would appeal that specimens from 

 Burma and Tenasserim including on^ oi Bungarus fa sciatus h?Ld been mixed up with his 

 Southern Indian collections. 



In proof of these statements, ui'/f Boulenger's Catalogue of Snakes 1893 to 1896 and 

 Sclater's list of Snakes in the Indian Museum, Journal Asiatic Society of Bengal, Vol. LX, 

 1891. 



t " Lancet," February 6th, 1904, p. 349 el seq, 



X " Thanatophidia," p. 45. 



*[f Indian Serpents, pp. 4 and 5, 



§ Ibid, pp. 84, 85, 101, 120, 134 



