560 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. XXII. 



death, though no treatment was attempted. Dr. Davy* after re- 

 marking that the effects of cobra bite " vary a good deal according 

 to circumstances not easy to calculate, " says : "I have seen several 

 men who have recovered from the bite of the hooded snake, and I 

 have heard of two or three only to whom it has proved fatal. " 

 Russellf mentions a cooiy woman whom he saw 10 hours after be- 

 ing bitten by a cobra. P aralysis had advanced so far as to seriously 

 affect her throat, and he had difficulty in getting her to swallow 

 a Tanjore pill. She recovered completely. He mentions another 

 case of a drunken Irishman J who declared he was proof against 

 any snake owing to his nationality, and put a cobra into his shirt 

 before an assembled throng. The snake bit him severely in the 

 breast, and he suffered not only great pain locally, but serious con- 

 stitutional effects, nevertheless he recovered. Dr. Nicholson § re- 

 cords a case where two snakemen under the influence of drink got 

 bitten by one of their cobras. As some time had elapsed when he 

 saw them he coloured some water pink with his dentifrice which 

 he gave them to allay their fears. Both recovered, though one had 

 a swollen hand next day as a result of the accident. CalmettelF 

 records another very interesting case where a man was profoundly 

 under the influence of cobra poisoning following a bite, but who 

 persistently refused antivenene which was to hand, took his 

 chance, and recovered completely. 



These cases are most instructive, and serve to point two lessons. 

 One is that however serious the symptoms arising from a cobra bite, 

 there is always hope. The other lesson is that nobody is qualified 

 to assume that any given treatment adopted in a certain case 

 has been responsible for its favourable issue. There can be no 

 doubt that the failure to realise this latter truth, has been respon- 

 sible for the host of reputed antidotes, which have been vaunted 

 from time to time since the days of Celsus, all of which have proved 

 futile when subjected to scientific experiment. It is difficult to say 

 what percentage of cases of cobra bite would not prove mortal. 

 Dr. Davy, speaking of Ceylon cobras, says that recovery follows the 

 bite as often as death. In the article on Snake Poisons in 

 Allbutt's system of medicine, Lamb and Martin say, " the mortality 

 in persons bitten by the larger snakes of India and South America 

 would not, from the scanty records available, appear to be more 

 than 30 per cent." 



Symptoms of cobra toxaemia. — These may be divided into local 

 and constitutional. 



Local. — The first, and perhaps invariable symptom, is pain, 



* An Account of the Interior of Ceylon, 1821. 



t Ibid. p. 78. 



t Ibid p. 88. 



§ Ibid. p. 160. 



•j Snakes, Snake Venoms, etc. 



