310 DR. T. CANTOR ON PELAGIC SERPENTS. 
experiments were made on board the Hon. Company’s surveying brig ‘ Meriton,’ during 
the latter part of 1836 and the commencement of 1837. 
A Hydrophis schistosa, measuring 4! 2" in length, was made to bite a fowl on the in- 
side of the left thigh. The bird immediately couched, and made several unsuccessful 
attempts to rise. Four minutes after being bitten, it was seized with purging, and slight 
spasms of the whole body ; the eyes were closed, the pupil immoveable, dilated, and a 
quantity of saliva was discharged. The fowl expired in violent spasms eight minutes 
from the time it was wounded. 
Another fowl, bitten in the right thigh, immediately after the former, by the same 
serpent, expired under similar symptoms in less than ten minutes after it had received 
the wound. 
By dissection half an hour after death, I found in both of the birds a slight extrava- 
sation of blood where the fangs had penetrated, and a little bloody lymph under 
the skin covering the wounds; but besides this [ was not able to observe anything 
anormal. 
A fowl wounded in the same place as the former by a Hydrophis nigrocincta, 2' 3" in 
length, expired within seven minutes in violent spasms. 
Of two other fowls successively bitten in the same place as the former by a Hydrophis 
striata, 3' 1" long, the one was killed in eight, the other in eleven minutes, under simi- 
lar symptoms. 
A Hydrophis schistosa, 2' 9" in length, bit a good-sized Trionyw Gangeticus' in the lip. 
Five minutes after, the Tortoise commenced rubbing the bitten part with his fore paws, 
and continued this manceuvre for some time; about sixteen minutes from the time he 
was bitten he became paralysed, and unable to make use of the legs, and remained mo- 
tionless, with the eyes closed. When forcibly opened, the pupils appeared immoveable 
and dilated. With a few spasmodic movements the Tortoise expired, twenty-eight mi- 
nutes after the wound was inflicted. With the exception of the bitten part being some- 
what swollen, nothing anormal appeared by the dissection. 
Another Trionyz, wounded in the same place as the former by a Hydrophis striata, 
nearly three feet in length, manifested similar symptoms, and was killed in forty-six 
minutes. 
A Coluber catenularis, Daudin*, measuring nearly 3 feet and a half in length, was 
wounded in the abdomen, a little before the heart, by a Hydrophis nigrocincta of about 
never heard of a fatal case from its bite, although I have seen a man suffer fearfully from swelling and pain. 
The fangs and the venomous gland of this very species are as fully developed as they are in the Crofali, the Vi- 
pers, or indeed in any of the venomous serpents, and yet the effects are less far dreadful than those produced 
by the Naja or the Hydrophis, notwithstanding the less-developed venomous organs of the latter.” 
1 The Trionyx Gangeticus is not unfrequently found in the Bay of Bengal, entirely beyond the influence of the 
fresh-water stream of the Ganges. I mention this fact, as I believe the Genus Trionyz is generally supposed to 
be confined to rivers (fresh water). . 
2 Tar Tutta, Russell, 1. No. XV.; Col. trigonata, Schneider ; Dipsas trigonata, Schlegel. 
