NATURE AND ANALYSIS OF THE POISONS. 189 
extremities or the small arteries or veins, death ensues after 
a much longer time than when it is introduced into one ot 
the larger veins or near the heart ; as, in the latter case, death 
ensues almost invariably within a few seconds. This fact is 
particularly noticeable in the action of the Naja trip. poison. 
The following experiments were made in St. Bartholomew’s 
Hospital, in London, in November, 1872, in the presence of 
the following gentlemen: Dr. J. Forbes Watson, of the India 
Office; J. Fayrer, M.D., author of the Thanatophidia; Dr. 
T. Lander Brunton, casualty physician to the hospital, and 
the author. The Cobra poison used in the experiments was 
very much decomposed, with its accompanying unbearable 
stench, having been kept in the laboratory for more than a 
year. It was diluted in the proportion of about one drop of 
poison to twenty drops of water. 
Experiment No. 1. With a tame pigeon, a dilution of the 
Cobra poison, injected into the left hind leg, at 1.463 p.m. 
At 1.50 it was seated with the point of its beak resting on 
the floor; did not appear to be in pain. At 1.52, or in 5} 
minutes, dead. 
Experiment No. 2. Another pigeon, of the same size and 
age, had injected into its left hind leg a dilution of the same 
poison at 1.56 p.m. At 1.59 a dose of the antidote, as pre- 
pared in Experiment No. 4, was injected into the mouth, by 
means of a syringe; at 1.60 dose of antidote; at 1.62 dose 
of antidote; at 1.62} wound moistened with antidote; at 
2.4 dose of antidote; at 2.7 dose of antidote; at 2.15 dose of 
antidote; at 2.214 p.m., or in 254 minutes, dead. 
Deductions from the previous Experiment. Although the 
antidote was not prepared from the gall of the Cobra, yet, 
still it seemed, to a certain degree, to counteract the effects of 
the poison. In the preceding experiments, the point of the 
