51 



THE POISONOUS SNAKES OF INDIA AND HOW TO 



RECOGNISE THEM. 



By 



Capt. F. Wall, I.M.S., C.M.Z.S. 



Part I. 



[Read before the Bombay Natural History Society on 

 the 25th January 1906.) 



Introductory Remarks. 



During the last decade a vast advancement in our knowledge of 

 snake venoms has been acquired, both in the province of toxicology 

 and in the all-important one of therapeutics. 



Whilst many observers have been engaged in the intricate, laborious, 

 and minute researches connected with the investigation of the toxic 

 properties of various venoms, very little, if any, advance has been 

 achieved in that equally important and sister branch of the subject 

 which deals with the identification of snakes, and especially with the 

 distinction of the poisonous from the non-poisonous varieties. 



In the treatment of snake-bite these two fields, though very distinct, 

 are mutually interdependent. It is of little use to have the knowledge 

 derived from one set of investigators at one's finger's ends, and its 

 fruits— viz., antivonene — to hand in all our hospitals, if the medical 

 attendant is incompetent to recognise a poisonous snake. It is only this 

 knowledge in conjunction with the other that can make rational treat- 

 ment possible, by teaching him wheu to withhold antivenene, and when 

 to administer it. 



It is to meet the unsatisfactory state of our knowledge on the subject 

 of the identification of snakes, that these papers have been contemplat- 

 ed, in the hope that they may bring this part of the subject up to the 

 standard approaching that to which we have arrived in the study of 

 snake venoms. Fully appreciating the already over voluminous 

 and ever-increasing subjects which the profession of medicine embraces 

 I have endeavoured to make the subject as practical as possible to the 

 oriental practitioner by avoiding technicalities, or, where this cannot be 

 done, explaining them with the aid of outline drawings, by which 

 means I hope to bring the matter of identification within the easy grasp 

 of hospital assistants and assistant surgeons, a? well as medical officers. 



