92 Messrs. T. L. Brunton and J. Fayrer on the [Jan. 22, 



were then protected from dust by two other watch-glasses inverted over 

 them. The temperature of the room was moderately warm. The 

 poisoned muscle underwent no change. Both muscles gradually dried 

 up ; but at no time could one be distinguished from the other, except by 

 the label on the watch-glass. 



The influence of cobra-poison in causing decomposition within the body 

 is evident from the following experiment. 



Experiment XXXV. 



January 17 'fh. About three drops of cobra-poison were injected under 

 the skin of the flank of a guineapig at 12.48 P.M. Immediately after- 

 wards the guineapig became restless and cried. In two minutes its head 

 began to twitch. An hour after the injection the animal was quiet, and 

 little or no effect of the poison could be observed. Three hours after the 

 injection it did not seem very well. Next morning it was found dead. 

 On examining it 22 hours after the injection it had begun to undergo 

 decomposition. The abdomen was somewhat inflated, and sulphuretted 

 hydrogen issued from it when opened. The hair came off readily from 

 all parts of the animal's skin. The muscles were soft. There was little 

 ecchymosis at the spot where the injection had been made. The tissues 

 near it were rather watery. The heart was contracted ; the lungs 

 somewhat congested. 



Action on the Nervous System. 



The most prominent symptoms of an affection of the nervous system 

 after the bite of a cobra, or other venomous snake, in animals or man, are 

 depression, faintness, lethargy, and in some cases, somnolence. There is 

 loss of coordinating power, and paralysis, sometimes affecting the hind legs 

 first and creeping over the body, sometimes affecting the whole body at 

 once. Death occurs by failure of the respiration, and is preceded by con- 

 vulsions. 



These symptoms clearly point to paralysis either of the nervous centres 

 or of the peripheral nerves. It may be supposed that the mention of the 

 latter alternative is superfluous, and that paralysis of the peripheral 

 nerves cannot produce such symptoms, which must therefore, by exclu- 

 sion, be due to an affection of the central ganglia. More especially may 

 the occurrence of convulsions be thought to exclude the possibility of 

 death being due to paralysis of the peripheral terminations of motor 

 nerves ; for if their function is abolished here, how, it may be said, can 

 general convulsions, which have their origin in the nervous centres, occur ? 



The answer to this is, that although the ends of the motor nerves are 

 so far deadened that they no longer transmit to the muscles any ordinary 

 stimulus proceeding from the nerve-centres, their function is not so 

 thoroughly abolished that they cannot transmit those which are stronger 

 than usual. This is shown by the fact that when an animal is slowly 

 poisoned by curare (as for example when that poison is introduced into 



