SYMPTOMS OF COBRA VENOM POISONING. 367 



The venom acts directly upon the nervous system, causing 

 gradual cerebro-spinal paralysis. If a fatal dose has been intro- 

 duced and absorbed into the blood, the nerve centres controlling 

 the automatic action of the lungs are paralysed, and breathing 

 ceases, although the heart is unaffected and continues beating 

 for some time, which clearly shows its vasomotor nerve 

 centres are unaffected by the venom.* The lungs having ceased 

 to act, the blood quickly becomes charged with carbonic acid, 

 due to the accumulation of the waste products of the body. 

 This vitiated blood slowly stops the beating of the heart, and 

 extinguishes life. The object of breathing is to inhale air, the 

 oxygen in which combines with the blood, burning up and con- 

 verting the impurities contained therein, giving off in the process 

 carbonic acid gas, which is breathed out. The importance of 

 this blood-purifying process is so great that if the lungs cease to 

 act, death or a trance-like condition ensues within a few minutes. 

 In the treatment of a patient bitten by a Cobra, Ringhals 

 or Mamba, be very vigilant. If the breathing should suddenly 

 cease, instantly resort to artificial breathing and keep it up until 

 the patient breathes of his own accord. If necessary, continue 

 this artificial breathing process for a couple of hours. In deahng 

 with the treatment of snake bite later on, artificial respiration 

 methods will be more fully explained. 



Cobra venom contains an anti-fibrin ferment and prevents 

 the coagulation of the blood. 



Symptoms of Cobra Venom Poisoning. 



The special principle known as neurotoxin or nerve poison 

 is particularly strong and active in Cobra venom. This 

 neurotoxin causes structural changes and paralysis of various 

 groups of nerve cells in the spinal cord and medulla. How- 

 ever, when death ensues within four or five hours after the 

 injection of the venom, no changes in the nerve cells take place, 

 death being due to rapid paralysis of the main nerve centres. 

 Cobra venom also acts upon the blood cells, but its principal and 

 most dangerous action is on the nervous system. 



The general symptoms of Cobra poison are : burning pain 

 for a few moments at the seat of injection of the venom. Numb- 

 ness of the bitten part rapidly sets in. Sometimes in the early 



* The end plates of the phrenic nerves in the diaphragm are also 

 paralysed. 



