A POPULAR TREATISE ON THE COMMON INDIAN SNAKES. 559 



inent in the lower animals. Elliot* reports on the authority of 

 Surg.-Major Browning, I. M.S., that on one occasion "a healthy cobra 

 bit a dog in two places with no results ; another bite from the same 

 cobra on the same animal resulted in death." Fayrerf records a 

 parallel case. "A Mongoose and a full-sized cobra were put into a large 

 wire cage at 1 p. m. The snake struck at the Mongoose, and they grap- 

 pled with each other frequently, and apparently the Mongoose must 

 have been bitten, as the snake held on to it about the neck and 

 head. The next day at noon both A^ere well. " There had been 

 two cobras with this Mongoose during the night " both equally 

 fierce striking each other, and the Mongoose, but the latter was not 

 poisoned. He was scratched by the cobra rather severelj^ on the 

 head." But on being bitten in the thigh by the same cobra when 

 both were taken out of the cage "the Mongoose succumbed to the 

 poison and died very rapidly." Again Dr. Davy reports a case 

 Mdiere " a cobra, 5 feet long, bit a hen, fixing its fangs in the skin 

 covering the lower point of the left pictoral muscle, and keeping its 

 hold about tAvo or three seconds." The hen died after eight hours. 

 Compare with this Fayrer's* fowl that was bitten " by a large cobra 

 in the thigh, fell into convulsions immediately and died in 50 

 seconds." The literature on the cobra is full of similar conflict- 

 ing results following its bite ; it is obvious that if such occur in 

 lower animals during experiment, they will occur also in the 

 human subjects bitten by accident. Speaking of this uncertainty, 

 Fayrer§ says " snakes frequently strike, and even wound without 

 poisoning." 



There is abundant evidence to show that snakes like the cobra, 

 which are known to be capable of delivering a mortal wound, fre- 

 quently fail to do so, though they may inject poison in considerable 

 quantity. Vincent Richard** says " a man or an animal may be 

 very seriously poisoned by a rattle snake, or indeed by any snake, 

 and yet recover under subjection to various or even no treatment. " 

 Weir Mitchell f I cites an experiment with a dog which he says 

 " has especial value as showing how exceedingly grave may be the 

 signs of poisoning, and yet how rapidl}?' and complete may be 

 the rally and escape. " At one stage the dog was lying on the 

 floor, scarcely breathing, and nearly pulseless. " I could multiply 

 instances " ad libitum." So far as the human subject is concerned 

 there are many cases of cobra bite recorded, where no ill-effects 

 were produced, or symptoms of varying severity, not ending in 



* Trans. Brit. Med., Assoc, S. Ind. Br., 1895, page 7. 



t Thanatophidia, p. 69. 



X Ibid. p. 80. 



§ Ibid. p. 64. 



•* Landmarks of Snake lit, p. 71. 



ft EssayonSnake Poison, p. 172. 



