TOXIC SECRETIONS OF VENOMOUS SNAKES 75 
MORTALITY CAUSED. . 
The mortality from snake bites is naturally greater in those countries where 
poisonous snakes are more abundant and the conditions of human life favor 
exposure. According to Fayrer, in 1869 there were 11,416 deaths from snake 
bites in Bengal, Assam, Orissa, Punjab, Oude, and Burma, a district which 
contains about 121,000,000 inhabitants, and perhaps almost 20,000 men, 7. é., 
16 out of every 100,000, are killed each year. In Bengal alone 7,595 men 
in 1874, and 8,807 in 1875, were killed by snakes. 
In the years from 1880 to 1887 the yearly average loss of the lives of 19,880 
human beings and 21,412 cattle was reported. In 1888, although 578,435 
poisonous snakes were destroyed 22,480 human lives were lost, and in 1889 
the snakes killed numbered 510,659 and the fatalities to the human race 
21,412. These alarmingly high mortality statistics may be attributed partly 
to the frequent invasions of poisonous snakes into human residence and 
partly to the powerful venoms they are provided with. Cases are known 
where venomous snakes have secreted themselves in the bed or in stockings 
or shoes and fatally bitten the owners. In India the cobra Naja tripudians, 
though smaller than the king cobra Naja bungarus, is the most dreaded. 
Of Bungarus, the common krait, B. ceruleus, is more dangerous than the 
other kraits. Daboia russellit and Echis carinata are fatal in their bites. 
The bites of Lachesis flavoviridis, better known as Trimeresurus riukiu- 
anus, are fatal in the ratio of slightly over 15 per cent of the entire number of 
persons bitten. The following figures show the analysis of the results of 
the bites of Tvimeresurus. 
TABLE 2. 
Bites. Recoveries. Deaths. Crippled. 
Year Sanaa 
M F M F M. F M F 
1898 158 53 133 46 18 6 a I 
1899 149 64 I21 53 22 10 3 I 
1900 150 71 131 54 17 14 2 3 
IgOI 148 82 130 68 18 14 ° I 
1902 133 45 114 39 14 5 3 
TQO3 172 7 140 57 24 41 I 7 
1904 138 53 123 46 12 53 2 3 
1905 182 79 153 63 27 II 5 2 
1906 197 79 164 60 24 17 9 2 
Total 1427 601 1209 486 176 87 45 22 
Thus each year the average number of persons bitten is 225.3, and 29.2 
deaths occur out of this number, making about 15 per cent mortality. If we 
take the total number of the inhabitants of the islands of Riu Kiu into 
consideration these figures are by no means small. The total population of 
the Okinawa prefecture is only 500,000. The accident statistics will be 
about 5 per milli, and the mortality 52.6 per 100,000. 
Calmette estimates the mortality from cobra bites at 25 to 45 per cent. 
Imlach gives 20 per cent mortality, based on 306 cases of Indian snake bites. 
