14 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol XVI 1, 



fasciitus), and again emphasized the fact that these poisons encompass 

 the death of their prey in very different ways. Colonel Bannerman 

 was also able to state authoritatively that antivenoms, that is, serums 

 prepared with different venoms, were practically specific. He told 

 you that Dr. Tidswell of Sydney had prepared a serum with the poison 

 of one of the Australian species (Noiechis scutatus) and that this 

 serum while effective for its homologous venom was quite useless for 

 the poisons of three other Australian species and also for the poisons 

 of three of our Indian snakes, viz., Naia tripudians, Bungarus fasciatus 

 and Vipera Russellii. Further, at that date, I had already tested 

 Calmette's serum against three Indian venoms and had found it to be of 

 no value whatever in the treatment of bites from these snakes, namely, 

 Vipera Russellii, Bungarus fasciatus and Echis carinata. Such then 

 was the position of our knowledge two years ago. 



Since that time a considerable amount of work has been done in the 

 direction both of elucidating the exact physiological actions of the 

 venoms of the different species, and of preparing various anti-serums. 

 In view of the fact that we are commencing in the Journal a series of 

 ■articles with coloured illustrations on the Snakes of India it appears to 

 be an appropriate time to bring our knowledge of these other questions 

 up to date. Let us begin then with the physiological actions of the 

 poisons, first dealing with the colubrine snakes. 



On the two previous occasions on which this subject was brought 

 before you the actions of the poisons of the Cobra and of the Banded 

 Krait were considered somewhat in detail and the differences which 

 exist between them were pointed out. We saw that probably these 

 two venoms were poisons which act chiefly on the central nervous 

 svstem. This probability has now been fully confirmed by the demon- 

 stration histologically of marked changes in the large nerve cells of the 

 brain and spinal cord. These changes are the move marked the longer 

 the animal lives after the injection of the poisons and are especially well 

 marked in the case of those animals which show the chronic nervous 

 symptoms of intoxication after an injection of Bungarus fasciatus venom. 

 If the animal dies within three hours of the bite no changes such as I 

 have mentioned are to be observed, but when death is delayed longer 

 than this period unequivocal changes can be easily demonstrated. 

 Further, cobra venom has been shown to have a direct action on 

 the heart and circulatory apparatus. This action is, however, quite 



