THE POISONOUS SNAKES OF INDIA. 325 



of 225,721 Phoorsas per annum ! Later he remarks that when 

 the Government reward was raised tentatively from six pies to two 

 annas per head, li5, 921 were paid for in 8 days (December 2nd to 

 10th, 1862). Again Candy in the same Journal (page 85 ) says that in 

 Ratnagiri, in August and September, the Mhars go out with long sticks 

 to which forks are attached, and catch them in thousands for Govern- 

 ment rewards. It is an inhabitant of the plains, and becomes progres- 

 sively scarcer at altitudes ranging up to 3,000 feet, beyond which it is 

 rarely if ever found. Thus Nicholson shows* that of 1,225 poisonous 

 snakes collected in the vicinity of Bangalore upon which Government 

 rewards were paid in the year 1873, only one proved to be an Echis. 



Poison. — Very conflicting opinions have been expressed regarding the 

 virulence of Echis poison. It is asserted by many that death is an ex- 

 tremely rare sequel to its bite, but I think there can be no doubt that 

 fatalities are much more frequent than many suppose. Vidal, whose 

 paper in the Bombay Natural History Journal f is a most valuable con- 

 tribution to the literature on this species, states that he found records of 

 G2 fatal cases treated in the Civil Hospital at Ratnagiri in the year 

 1878. He estimated that about 20 per cent, of the cases of Echis bite 

 proved fatal, and remarks that the poison is slow, death occurring on 

 an average in 4^ days, but that some cases lingered on for 20 days. 

 He says later that the Echis is a far more potent factor than any other 

 venomous species in swelling the mortality of the Bombay Presidency. 

 He substantiates this assertion by the very significant observation that 

 in Echis-ridHeu tracts the mortality from snake-bite far exceeds that 

 in districts where this snake is comparatively scarce. In a table 

 compiled from official returns for 8 years (1878 to 1885), for the 

 districts of the Bombay Presidency, he shows that in the districts 

 of Hyderabad, Thar and Parkar, Karachi (Sind), and Ratnagiri 

 (Kanara), where the Echis abounds, one man in 5,000 dies per annum 

 from snake-bite, whereas in the districts of Bijapur, Nasik. Ahmed- 

 nagar and Sholapur, where this snake is rare or absent, only one man 

 in 100,000 dies from snake-bite. Murray! says " this little viper is 

 very venomous ; although the action of its poison is not quite so quick 

 as that of the cobra, it is equally as potent, and numerous deaths 

 annually occur from its bite." Dr. Inlach, Civil Surgeon at Shikar- 



* " Indi.m !-nakes," p. 173. 



t Vol. V., p. 64. 



X « ReptMa of Bind, " p. 57. 



