A POPULAR TREATISE ON THE COMMON INDIAN SNAKES. 563 



between a cobra bite and the death thereby occasioned varies con- 

 siderably. The shortest interval that I have any record of is half 

 an hour. Fayrer* reports one case that died in this short interval, 

 the bitten subject being an adult man. The Pioneer of the 27th of 

 April 1908, reported a European lady, Mrs. Cockely, succumbing to 

 the bite of a cobra in half an hour. The wound was inflicted on 

 the top of her toe, and the snake was killed there and then by her 

 husband. More often the interval that elapses amounts to hours, 

 from about two to six hours being perhaps usual. A woman men- 

 tioned by Fayrer died after 8 hours, and other cases have been 

 reported exceeding 24 hours. 



Treatment of cobra bite. — From the voluminous literature on 

 experimental work, with the object of testing various reputed an- 

 tidotes to cobra or other snake venoms, and of testing the value of 

 mechanical contrivances for checking the absorption of these poisons, 

 one cannot escape the conviction that there is only one known 

 remedy, viz., antivenene. Fayrer's work alone is convincing enough 

 and he spared no pains and gave every possible method a fair 

 trial. Drugs of all sorts, those vaunted by professional snakemen, 

 as well as those from the British Pharmacopiaaa were administered 

 by the mouth, by injection into the tissues at the site of the 

 wound, and introduced into the veins, with no benefit. The actual 

 cautery, strong corrosive liquids locally, and the introduction of 

 oxidising agents such as permanganate of potash, which are known 

 to neutralise and destroy the poisonous properties of cobra venom in 

 a vessel were employed at the seat of the wound without avail. 

 Ligature, excision and amputation were all tried, and proved futile, 

 and the so called " snake stones" were as useless as everything else. 

 Fayrer's experiments have been repeated, and supplemented by 

 numerous conscientious workers in this field, and abundantl} T confirm- 

 ed. The resuscitated "remedy," permanganate of potash, has 

 lately been the subject of an exhaustive investigation at the hands 

 of Colonel Eannerman at Parel and has proved to be completely un- 

 successful. The conditions of an accidental bite were imitated as 

 far as possible, and I had the privilege of witnessing some of the 

 experiments. A syringe charged with the lethal dose of poison was 

 fitted on to a Russell's viper's fang. A puncture in the dog's skin 

 was made with a knife point, the fang introduced, and the poison 

 injected. Within a couple of seconds or so. the puncture was cut 

 down upon and permanganate crystals well rubbed in. There was 

 no doubt of the thoroughness of the attempt to bring the salt into 

 relationship with the poison, but it signally failed to avert death. 

 I saw the previous day's dead subject also dissected, and the typical 

 effects of the poison were seen to have been diffused as high up as 



* Loc. cit. p. 53. 

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