POISON APPARATUS. 347 



papilla at the end of the duct plug the hole in the fang. In fact, 

 the hole at the base of the fang is actually corked, with the 

 difference that the papilla cork allows the venom to stream 

 through it into the grooved or hollow fang. Unless the snake is 

 able to deliver a full bite and close its jaws firmly over the bitten 

 part, a full charge of venom is not delivered. It can thus be 

 clearly seen that recovery may take place without any antidotal 

 treatment after being imperfectly bitten by a snake whose full 

 bite is fatal. In this way faith is established in various worthless 

 so-called snake-bite " cures." 



However, it must be borne in mind that highly venomous 

 snakes such as Cobras, Mambas, and Puff Adders, are able to 

 inject far more venom at a single full bite than is sufficient to 

 kill a man. An instance in point is given by Dr. Hanna. He 

 says, " The gentleman, who was the writer's co-worker in India, 

 was one day cleansing the mucus from the mouth of a Cobra, 

 which was being held by a snake charmer preparatory to ex- 

 pressing the poison, when he inadvertently pushed the top of 

 his thumb against the fang. He fancied that as the Cobra had 

 not bitten him he had not received any poison, although the 

 fang had penetrated deeply ; he did no more therefore than 

 suck the wound. In about two hours he had weakness of the 

 limbs, drowsiness, vomiting, and was unable to feel in his thumb 

 and first two fingers. The parts swelled, and it was only after 

 considerable time he recovered by energetic treatment with anti- 

 venom serum. He ultimately lost the top of his thumb as a 

 result of necrosis and death of the tissues." 



Here we have an instance of a man who was wounded by only 

 one fang which could not have discharged much venom for there 

 was no pressure exerted by the snake, yet if the venom had not 

 been neutralized in time in the man's blood by the injection of 

 liberal quantities of anti-venom serum, he would undoubtedly 

 have died. 



Half a drop of Cobra venom is the smallest dose which ^vill 

 kill a man, but it often takes two drops to kill a vigorous 

 healthy person. In collecting venom for research purposes I 

 have drawn fifteen drops at a time from a six-foot Cape 

 Cobra. If this Cobra had bitten a man, and had been allowed 

 to retain its grip for a couple of seconds, it was capable of in- 

 jecting something like six to ten fatal doses into him. 



