12 Professor Halford. 



In addition to the above, I may state that I was 

 present at the post-mortem examination, and (in 

 addition) my notes tell me that all the subcutaneous 

 tissues of the body were as full as they could hold of 

 bloody serum ; so much so that we had a bucket at 

 each of the four corners of the table to catch the fluid. 

 Examination of the blood showed me a strange 

 condition of the corpuscles. 



The cobra was brought to me alive about 11 p.m. 

 the same night. It was in a light wicker basket tied 

 round with cord. I took him to my laboratory, put 

 pieces of sponge through the openings and poured 

 chloroform in. When I thought him sufficiently 

 quiet, I cut the cords, raised the lid, and inserted 

 him bodily into a glass jar of methylated spirit. I 

 felt sure he would be quiet enough for me to handle 

 in the morning, when I found him to be a spectacled 

 snake (Naja tripudians) five feet four inches in length. 



I obtained from his glands half a teaspoonful of 

 liquid poison, some of which I injected subcutaneously 

 into a dog which died some few hours afterwards with 

 the usual symptoms of snake-poison. The blood was 

 in the same state as that of the man who had died on 

 the previous day. 



I may mention, for the benefit of the non-scientific 

 reader, that this cobra had had his two poison fangs 

 extracted in India, but by the time the unfortunate 

 man met his death in Melbourne, the two next of the 

 reserve fangs had advanced, grown, and become 

 connected to the poison ducts, one on each side. 



Becoming greatly interested, I began experimenting 

 on dogs, and at the same time reading all I could 

 obtain of venomous snakes in India, America, Africa, 

 Martinique, and the Colonies. One thing struck me 



