342 COMMON REPTILES OF AN INDIAN GARDEN 



estimating the real value of the evidence adduced 

 in favour of the efficacy of reputed remedies for 

 the effects following snake-bite. In it there was no 

 question in regard to the snake, none in regard to 

 the presence of punctures inflicted by its poison 

 fangs, and no reason to doubt the patient's statement 

 that a large quantity of venom was ejected ; but 

 yet no symptoms of cobrine intoxication followed. 

 It can hardly be imagined that the treatment which 

 was adopted accounts for their absence, and there 

 can be little doubt that the patient's explanation 

 of his escape was the true one, and that little or 

 no venom entered the wounds. He affirmed that 

 the venom all ran down over the surface of his hand, 

 and it is easy to believe that this may really have 

 occurred. When the site of the bite and the 

 structural peculiarities of a cobras fangs are taken 

 into account it is difficult to imagine how any 

 appreciable quantity of venom could have been 

 injected into the tissues. The punctures inflicted 

 by the poison-fangs were on the back of the second 

 joint of the forefinger, and, consequently, in a site 

 where the thickness of soft and penetrable tissues is 

 very small. Only the tips of the fangs could, there- 

 fore, have penetrated, and consequently the channel 

 for the conveyance of the venom must have remained 

 so imperfectly closed as to favour superficial escape 

 rather than effective injection of the poison. The 

 poison-channels in the fangs of colubrine venomous 



