186 VENOMOUS SNAKES. 



There is one kind of snake in India of a slug- 

 gish nature, with beautiful marks on its skin 

 resembling the eyes in a peacock's tail, which has 

 four venomous teeth, and is the only kind that I 

 have ever seen with more or less than two.* 

 The hotter the weather, the more deadly their 

 bite ; which I conceive is owing to the poison 

 being more fluid, passing more readily into the 

 wounds, and being sooner absorbed, than in cold 

 weather, when it is in a more tenacious state. It 

 acts, I imagine, principally on the nervous sys- 

 tem, from the rapidity of its effects ; and, I think, 

 causes death by stopping the action of the heart. 



In all the animals I opened, which died of this 

 poison, I found the heart, and great blood vessels, 

 gorged with blood of a blacker colour than 

 natural. 



The natives of India always ascertain whether 

 a snake is venomous or not, by the length of its 

 tail, which, if less than a fourth of the whole 



* Since writing the above, I have met with a viper with 

 three venomous teeth on one side, and one on the other, 

 perfect, and all surrounded at their roots with the usual 

 cyst. 



