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SUPPLEMENT TO THE FOREGOING PAPER, 

 ON THE POISON OF SERPENTS. 



H 



AVING at length fucceeded in procuring a 

 ^^_^^ fnake with the venomous teeth and poifon bag 

 entire, but which are commonly extra£led in thofe fer- 

 pents which the natives carry about with them, I re- 

 foh'ed to make fume experiments with it. The fnake 

 I had procured was a large Cobra de Capello (Coluber 

 Naja^ Lin.) and which is generally reprefented to be 

 the moft venomous of all ferpents. 



EXPERIMENT L 



I WAS, in the firft place, defirous of afcertaining the 

 power of the venom : for this purpofe, the fnake was 

 made to bite a young dog in the hind leg, and for 

 which no medicine, either internal or external, was 

 made ufe of. The dog, upon being hit, howled 

 violently for a few minutes ; the wounded limb foon 

 became paralytic ; in ten minutes the dog lay fenfelefs 

 and convulfed -, in thirteen minutes he was dead. 



EXPERIMENT II. 



A DOG, of a fmaller fize, and younger, was row 

 bitten in the hind leg, when he was inftantly plunged 

 into a warm nitric bath, previoully prepared for the 

 purpofe : as foon as poffible after he was in the bath, 

 the wound was flight ly fcarified, and a weak folution 

 of lunar cauftic in water was poured down his throat : 

 but the fyniptoms made the fame progrefs as in the 

 firft experiment, and the dog died in the fame time. 



Upon opening ihefe two dogs, about half an hour 

 afterdeaih, the blood in the heart, and in the larger 



veffels. 



