REPTILES. 95 



few paces after quitting the bank, and then fell down in 

 violent convulsions. When brought in his breathing was 

 laborious, his skin cold and clammy, his countenance livid, 

 and his pulse feeble at the wrist, but distinct at the temples. 

 A quantity of froth and foam was ejected from between his 

 closed teeth. He too recovered after a similar treatment • 

 but he complained for many days that he had no left leg. 



A large healthy chicken was exposed to the bite of a 

 hydrus major four foot long. It was bit in the foot, and 

 in about ten minutes began to droop, and to show a slight 

 convulsive flutter in both wings. In three minutes more 

 it was convulsed ; and at the end of seventeen minutes 

 from the infliction of the wound, it suddenly dropped down 

 dead.* 



While on the subject of poisonous snakes, it may not he 

 uninteresting to the reader to peruse the recorded experience 

 of a medical gentleman, who had himself nearly fallen a 

 victim to the bite of one of these insidious reptiles. On 

 the night of the 12th of May, 1809, Mr. John Macrae, civil 

 surgeon at Chittagong, while stepping into the southern 

 veranda of his house, oliserved a small dark-coloured snake 

 running along the terrace. After several unsuccessful 

 attempts, he succeeded in killing it with a small cane ; 

 but in doing so the creature struck against one of his an- 

 kles, which it touched with the point of its fangs, but so 

 slightly as to draw no blood. A few minutes afterward, 

 while undressing to go to bed, he felt a peculiar glow over 

 his whole body, with a strong palpitation at the heart ; but 

 this he at first attributed merely to his exertions in killing 

 the snake. He soon, however, became very restless, and 

 experienced a singular sensation as if a warm fluid were 

 circulating through his veins to the extremities of his fin- 

 gers. He was then attacked by violent sickness, the heat 

 of his body abated, and was succeeded by a deadly coldness 

 of the skin, and profuse perspiration. He took repeated 

 doses of the spirihis ammonict compositus ; after which the 

 sickness subsided, and his breathing became easier. So 

 entirely was the nervous sensibility of the palate aflJected 

 that on swallowing the first doses he was insensible to the 

 nauseous taste of the alkali. In the course of three hours 

 he was out of danger. 



• Asiatic Researches, vol. xiii. p. 339. 



