NAJA. 11 
water readily, and swim well, but are essentially terrestrial snakes. 
They can climb, and occasionally ascend trees in search of food. Cobras 
are not unfrequently found in the roofs of huts, holes in walls, fowl 
houses, old ruins, under logs of wood, in cellars, old brick kilns, and old 
masonry of stone, brickwork, or mud. Such are the common dwelling- 
places of these reptiles, and where they are frequently disturbed by 
men, who, stepping on or inadvertently disturbing and touching them, 
receive their death-wound. 
“The cobra is most deadly, and its poison, when thoroughly imocu- 
lated by a fresh and vigorous snake, is quickly fatal. Paralysis of the 
nerve-centres takes place, and death occurs with great rapidity, some- 
times in a few minutes, especially when the fangs, having penetrated a 
vein, inoculate the poison immediately into the venous circulation. The 
number of deaths caused yearly in India by these snakes is perfectly 
appalling. The cases in which recovery occurs are, it is to be feared, 
very few; treatment appears to be of little avail unless it be almost 
immediate, and then, in the case of a genuine bite, there is but little 
hope of saving life. As to the mode of treatment and other matters 
connected with the bite of the cobra, and the great mortality caused by 
it in India, they will be described subsequently. 
“The cobras are the favourites of the snake-charmers, and it is 
astonishing with what ease and freedom they are seized and handled by 
these men, even when in possession of their fangs. The snake-catchers 
render them temporarily harmless by cutting out the poison fangs ; but 
these are quickly reproduced, unless, as most generally happens, with 
the fang all the reserve fangs and germs are removed, in which case the 
snake is harmless for life. Their graceful movements in the erect atti- 
tude they assume with the hood distended as they follow the move- 
ments of the snake-charmer’s hands, make them an object of wonder as 
well as fear to all, and the superstitions of the natives about them are 
endless. The muntyra, or spell, is far more potent in their idea than any 
drug, and to such they generally trust: when bitten. How frequentiy 
these fail the records of any civil station in India will prove, and it is to 
be feared that the more material remedies of the physician are scarcely 
more potent for good. 
“The snake-catchers in Bengal describe a great variety of cobras. The 
