POISON OF SOME INDIAN VENOMOUS SNAKES. 5 



and it is with this object that the investigations by Dr. Lauder 

 Brunton and Dr. Fayrer, since his return to England, of which 

 the present paper is an instalment, have been pursued. 



Our investigations so far confirm the opinion by Dr. Fayrer 

 already recorded, that death is due to the action of the poison 

 on the nerve-centres, to which it is conveyed by the blood 

 with terrible rapidity when the injection of the poison takes 

 place into a large vein like the crural or jugular. But we 

 have not yet arrived at absolute conclusions as to the extent to 

 which this neurotic action is carried, whether it be localised in 

 the nerve-centres only, or whether there be, and to what 

 extent, any action on other portions of the nerve-apparatus. 



Our experiments so far, though pointing distinctly to the 

 centres as the seat of its action, in some cases seem to imply 

 that the nerve-periphery and perhaps even the muscles them- 

 selves are involved ; but on this head, for the present, we 

 reserve the expression of a positive opinion. 



With reference to remedial measures in cobra-poisoning, we 

 would remark that, so far as our experiments have as yet gone, 

 artiticial respiration has certainly had the effect of prolonging 

 life; and without committing ourselves to any opinion, we 

 would say that we would not yet abandon hope that it may, as 

 in the case of the curara, even save it altogether. This must, 

 of course, depend on, first, the nature of the action of the 

 poison on the nerve-apparatus — that is, whether it be of 

 a transient or permanent character. Is it, for example, like 

 curara, which though it destroys the power of the peripheral 

 extremity of the motor nerves during its presence, yet leaves 

 them uninjured and capable of resuming their functions 

 after the poison is removed (as it may be) by elimination, 

 life being supported by artificial respiration during that 

 process. 



If so, and the cobra-poison, even though antagonistic and 

 annihilative of the action of the nerve-centres and peripheral 

 distribution, or of the muscular irritability itself, be only so 

 whilst it is present, and would, if removed within reasonable 

 time, leave the nervous apparatus or muscles in a condition to 

 resume their operations, then, if elimination could be carried 



