52 EXPERIMENTS WITH POISONOUS SNAKES, 



Presently he struck at the rabbit, but from some 

 reason missed it, striking the glass front of the case 

 instead, a couple of drops of poison being left on 

 the glass. In a moment or two the cobra made 

 another dart, and with better aim, striking the rabbit 

 on the nose, and, soon after, on the back. Death 

 ensued in 3 min. 28 sec. On opening the skin of the 

 nose, I found the flesh and muscles much swelled, 

 the wound inflicted by the fangs being marked by 

 a small spot of congealed blood. The tissues of 

 the eye were much inflamed, and there was a spot 

 of dark matter near the posterior edge of the orbit. 

 The pupil of the eye appeared glassy and semi- 

 transparent. When dying, the rabbit appeared to 

 have great difficulty in breathing. On cutting away 

 the skin on the back, I found a large clot of 

 decomposed matter mixed with blood extending 

 over the region of the spine. The punctures of the 

 fangs were on the line of the vertebrae, and one of 

 them had pierced the large dorsal muscles, the flesh 

 around and the muscles themselves being much 

 swollen and inflamed. 



A guinea-pig bitten by a puff-adder was struck 

 on the belly, just above the large intestine. On 

 opening the animal, the caecum appeared unna- 

 turally swollen, the small intestine being spotted 

 with blood, and much inflamed. Though the 

 guinea-pig had been dead only a quarter of an hour 



