POISON OF SOME INDIAN VENOMOUS SNAKES. 31 



paralysis, so that, if a limb has been thus wounded, it is dragged 

 by the animal. The paralysis afterwards extends to the rest of 

 the body, and death ensues. Experiments on this subject have 

 been recorded by one of us (Dr. Fayrer) in the Thanatophidia 

 of India. 



Effect of Serpent-venom. 07i Snal'es. 



The bite of venomous serpents, such as the col)ra, Dahoia, 

 and Bungarus, generally proves fatal to innocuous serpents, 

 but not always. The occasional escape of the latter is probably 

 due to the quantity of poison absorbed having been small, 

 either absolutely, or relatively to the size of the bitten snake. 

 The effect of the size of the innocuous snake upon the time 

 required by the poison to produce a fatal effect is illustrated by 

 Experiment/, in which a small rat-snake was killed by the bite 

 of a B'tmgarus cwruleus (less poisonous than a cobra) in 7 hours 

 17 minutes, while a large snake of the same species was not 

 killed by the bite of a cobra till after about 36 hours (Experi- 

 ment a) ; and another still larger one was unaffected by the 

 cobra-venom (Experiment g). Venomous snakes are not 

 generally affected either by their own poison or that of another 

 sort of snake, no less than 15 drops of venom having been 

 injected hypodermically into a cobra (Experiment r) without 

 effect ; but small ones are occasionally killed by large indi- 

 viduals belonging either to the same or to a different species.* 



The symptoms caused by the poison were the same in both 

 the innocuous and the venomous snakes killed by it, and 

 consisted chiefly of sluggishness and indisposition to move, 

 which probably signifies in the snake, as it does in the frog, 

 a progressive paralysis. Only in Exi'erimeut h were convulsive 

 movements noticed. The movements of the tail in Experi- 

 ment c, after motion had ceased in every other part of the body, 

 are remarkable. 



The poisonous action of the venom of the cobra, Dahoia, and 

 Bungarus upon innocuous snakes is shown in the following 



* It is probable deatli may be due to other causes, especially in the case of a 

 Dahoia-hite, where the fangs are so large that the wound and internal hemor- 

 rhage might cause death. 



