BITE OF SERPENTS. 265 



comes deadly pale or deep yellow, while a black watery 

 blood runs from the wound, which changes to a yellowish 

 matter. Violent headache succeeds, and giddiness, faint- 

 ness, and overwhelming terrors, burning thirst, gushing 

 discharges of blood from the orifices of the body, intoler- 

 able fetor of breath, convulsive hiccoughs, and death. 



Mr Francis T. Buckland * has described the awful effects 

 of a dose of poison received from the cobra-di-capello 

 in his own person. Fortunately it was a most minute 

 dose, or we should not have received the account. A rat 

 which had been struck by the serpent, Mr Buckland 

 skinned after its death. He scraped the interior of the 

 skin with his finger-nail, forgetting that he had an hour 

 before been cleaning his nails with his penknife. In so 

 doing, he had slightly separated the nail from the quick, 

 and into this little crack the poison had penetrated. 

 Though the orifice was so small as to have been un- 

 noticed, and though the venom was not received direct 

 from the serpent, but had been diffused through the system 

 of the rat, the life of the operator was all but sacrificed. 



A few years ago the people of London were shocked by 

 the sudden death of Curling, one of the keepers of the 

 Zoological 'Gardens, from the bite of a cobra. 



In India, where the species is common, its propensity 

 to haunt houses frequently brings it under notice, and 

 many accidents occur. It seems, however, on some occa- 

 sions to be placably disposed, if not assaulted; and some 

 singular escapes are on record of persons who have had 

 * Curiosities of Nat. Hist., p. 223. 



