94 SIR JOSEPH FAYRER, K.C.S.I., ETC., 



is exhausted when the snake has bitten frequently, but is 

 rapidly reformed ; in the interval the reptile is comparatively 

 harmless, but soon becomes dangerous again. A vigorous 

 cobra can kill several creatures before its bite becomes 

 impotent. Removal of the fangs renders the snake tempo- 

 rarily harmless. 



Some animals, especially the pig and the mongoose, are 

 supposed to have immunity from snake-bite ; fat sometimes 

 protects the former, the latter is so wiry and active that it 

 frequently escapes with only a scratch ; but, if either of them 

 be fairly bitten in a vascular part, it succumbs like any other 

 animal. 



The chemistry of snake-poison has been studied by Fontana, 

 by Prince L. Bonaparte, Armstrong, Gautier, and others, and 

 recently by Drs. Weir, Mitchell, and Keichert, of the United 

 States. It is a most virulent poison, and may neither be sucked 

 from a bite nor swallowed with impunity. It acts most rapidly 

 on warm-blooded, but is also deadly to cold-blooded creatures, 

 and to the lowest forms of invertebrate life. Strange to say, 

 a snake cannot poison itself, or one of its own species, 

 scarcely its own congeners, and only slightly any other genus 

 of venomous snake ; but it kills innocent snakes quickly. 

 Snake-poison kills by extinguishing the source of nerve 

 energy. It is also a blood poison and irritant, and causes 

 great local disturbance as well as blood change. If it enter 

 by a large vein, life may be destroyed in a few seconds. 

 The chief effect is on the respiratory apparatus, and death 

 occurs by asphyxia ; but general paralysis is also a result. 

 The phenomena of poisoning vary according to the nature of 

 the snake and the individual peculiarities of the creature 

 injured, the chief difference being observed in viperine, as 

 contrasted with colubrine poison. The latter is a nerve- 

 poison of great deadliness ; as a blood poison its results are 

 less marked. Viperine poison, on the other hand, is a more 

 potent blood-poison. 



Adder poison is of the viperine character, and though its 

 immediate effects as a nerve-poison are feeble, yet those on 

 the blood and locally on the tissues may be productive of 

 serious symptoms. 



It is impossible to enumerate all the antidotes that have 

 been reported beneficial ; but amongst those that have the 

 greatest repute may be mentioned arsenic, ammonia, alcohol, 

 quinine, strychnine, acids, snake poison itself, snake-bile, and 

 the snake -stone, so much relied on in India. 



