356 COMMON REPTILES OF AN INDIAN GARDEN 



ening, but an instantaneous and deadly assault. 

 When they have laid hold, too, they hang on and 

 worry in a sickening fashion whilst they strive to 

 inject as much as possible of their tenacious yellow 

 venom. The exhibition of such a concentration 

 of deadly ferocity is quite terrifying. 



The venom acts in an entirely different fashion 

 from that of cobras, and seems to produce two 

 distinct toxic effects. When introduced in more 

 or less concentrated form it gives rise to symptoms 

 of nervous irritation, ranging in accordance with 

 the strength of the dose, from local muscular 

 twitchings to a condition of general excitation that 

 culminates in violent general convulsions, followed 

 by death ; or, where the dose has not been so 

 great, by general exhaustive paralysis. Where large 

 doses are introduced in a dilute form, or when a 

 number of very minute doses of comparatively 

 concentrated venom enter the system in rapid 

 succession, the indications of nervous irritation 

 are purely local, no general convulsions or paralysis 

 occur, but a condition of blood-poisoning is estab- 

 lished, which either runs on to a fatal termination, 

 or is slowly recovered from, according to the strength 

 of the patient, and the quantity of the poison that 

 has entered the system. 



Daboias, except for their beauty, are rather 

 uninteresting animals in captivity. They spend 

 almost the whole of their time lying coiled up and 



