ON SERPENT-WORSHIP AND VENOMOUS SNAKES. 95 



These stones are said to attach themselves closely to the 

 bitten part, the blood that oozes out being rapidly absorbed, 

 and when it drops off the bitten person is thought to be out 

 of danger. Faraday said that these are pieces of charred 

 bone. There may be a fragment of truth in the supposition 

 that they are of use, because in absorbing the blood, they 

 must also absorb some of the poison, though so little that 

 their efficacy must be a mere delusion. 



Experience shows that so far no physiological antidote to 

 snake-virus is known, and that, when the full effect is pro- 

 duced, remedies are of little avail ; but when the poison has 

 entered in smaller quantities, medical treatment may be of 

 service. 



The entry of the poison into the system should be arrested, 

 if possible, by a ligature above the injured part ; next the 

 poison in the wound should be destroyed or removed by 

 excision or by burning, and the application of potassium 

 permanganate. The subsequent treatment is conducted on 

 ordinary medical principles, of which further details would 

 be out of place here. 



I must now describe the principal venomous snakes of India. 

 The Elapidae are subdivided into Najadce or hooded snakes, 

 and Elapidae proper, which are not hooded. Najadce has two 

 genera, Naja and Ophiophagus ; Elapidae has three, Bungarus, 

 Xenurelaps, Callophis. 



Naja includes the several varieties of cobra, which are all 

 of one species, though differing considerably in external 

 appearance. 



The cobra di capello (Naja tripudians) has numerous 

 synonyms in different parts of India. A common general 

 native term is kala nag or kala samp. There are many 

 varieties, and they are considered by natives to be of different 

 degrees of activity or deadliness ; but the probability is that 

 any difference is due to temporary or individual causes. 



The cobras are all hooded, bearing on the hood a spectacle 

 mark, or a single ocellus, or no mark at all ; this hood is 

 caused by the expansion of a certain number of elongated 

 ribs. The body and tail are relatively of moderate length, 

 seldom together exceeding five or six feet, more frequently 

 three or four feet. The scales are smooth and imbricated ; 

 there is no loreal shield, the nostrils are lateral and the pupil 

 is round. The colour generally is from a light chocolate, 

 speckled, to a dark brown or even black. The head is short, 

 and not very distinctly separated from the neck; the fangs 



