204 SNAKE 



deal occupied with the subject, and when in 

 Calcutta general hospital in 1790, I took 

 Pontana as a guide, and employed two men 

 denominated Cunjoors, or snake catchers, for 

 nearly twelve months, at four rupees each per 

 month, to catch snakes for me to try experi- 

 ments with. The result of those experiments 

 I have unfortunately lost, but I well remem- 

 ber that I could find no rne:licine to count M*- 

 ac entirely the effect of the poison. I had 

 dogs, cats, poultry, and other animals bitten, 

 and all the cases tended to prove, that the 

 power of the animal to destroy vitality, be- 

 came considerably weakened after ev 7 ery bile. 

 It required a tolerably large cobra de capei- 

 lo to destroy a cat; a second cat bitten by 

 the same snake about half an hour afterwards, 

 recovered. I shall here remark that a cat 

 withstood the poison better than any other 

 animal, excepting the Mungoose [Ichneu- 

 mon] ; the commonly received opinion that 

 the latter animal is never killed by the poi- 

 son, is certainly erroneous, and that it repairs 

 when bitten to the grass,, and eats of some par- 



