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SNAKE VENOMS : THEIR PHYSIOLOGICAL ACTION 



AND ANTIDOTE. 



By George Lamb, M.B., Capt., LM.S. 



{From the Research Laboratory^ Bombay.) 



(Bead before the Bombay Natural History Society on 21st January 1902.) 



At a recent meeting of our society Mr. Phipson and Father Dreck- 

 man showed us the beautiful collection of snakes, which, as a rule, is 

 kept shut up in a cupboard. On this occasion Mr. Phipson indicat- 

 ed to us the way by which naturalists tell a poisonous from a non- 

 poisonous snake : he also told us about the structure of the poison 

 apparatus and about the mechanisms by which the so-called erection 

 of the fangs and the ejection of the poison take place. It is, therefore, 

 unnecessary for me to again enter into these most interesting subjects. 

 Further, Father Dreckman told us, that, although there are many 

 varieties of poisonous snakes in India, there were only four terrestrial 

 snakes which could be said to offer any danger to man, and that 

 naturalists put these four into two great groups, viz. ( 1 ) two of the 

 Colubrine family — the Cobra and • the Kraits ; ( 2 ) two Viperine, 

 viz.j Russell's Viper or Daboia and Echis Carinata or Phoorsa. 

 This evening I propose to tell you something about the nature and 

 physiological action of the venoms of these snakes. At the outset, 

 however, I should like you to understand that my remarks on this 

 subject will be strictly confined to a summary of the observations which 

 I have made with the poisons of the two most deadly of these snakes, 

 viz., the Cobra and the Daboia. I have little or no experience of the 

 poison of the Kraits or that of the Echis, nor do I know of any 

 thoroughly trustworthy scientific observations which have been made 

 with the venoms of these two species. And let it be clearly under- 

 stood, that, although the Krait is a Colubrine snake and the Echis 

 a viper, it by no means follows, as I have good reason to know, that the 

 poison of the Krait has the same physiological action as the venom of 

 the Cobra or that of the Echis the same as the venom of the Daboia. 



On the Method of procuring the Poison for Experimental Purposes. 



All the older experiments with snake venom were made by allow- 

 ing the snake to bite some animal or other. This method is, of 

 course, a crude one and affords us no information as to the amount 

 of poison which a snake can inject nor as to the exact quantity 

 which can prove lethal to a given animal. Nowadays all investigators 



