SCIENCE- GOSSIP. 



33 



RADIOGRAPH OF NAJA TKIPUDIANS. 



By C. Ainsworth Mitchell, B.A. (Oxon.) 



f I THE cobra, whose radiograph is shown here, 

 -*- was killed by a native in the Punjab and 

 sent to me preserved in spirit by Captain S. J. 

 Berkeley. The radiograph was taken by Mr, T. C. 

 Hepworth, an exposure of about four minutes being 

 given. The structure of the jaw with its poison- 



chief food consists of small vertebrates, and it 

 often enters human habitations in search of rats. 



The cobra is responsible for some thousands of 

 deaths in India every year, and although the 

 Indian Government attempted to check the 

 scourge by offering a small sum of money for 



fang can be plainly discerned, and also the point 

 at which the backbone was fractured with a 

 stick. The cobra is widely distributed, occurring 

 from Transcaspia to China, and to the Malay 

 Islands ; in the Himalayas it ascends to about 

 3,000 feet above the level of the sea. Very large 

 specimens are said to attain more than six feet in 

 length, but a cobra five feet long, including the 

 nine inches of tail, is considered exceptional. Its 

 July 1901.— No. 86, Vol. VIII. 



the head of each snake brought in, the attempt 

 was unsuccessful, for it was found that the wily 

 natives were breeding the snakes with the object 

 of increasing their rewards. 



The process of immunisation which was worked 

 out by Dr. Calmette in the Pasteur Institute ap- 

 pears to be the most promising antidote to the 

 venom, for the older remedies, such as potassium 

 permanganate, are altogether unreliable. 

 Published June 25th, 1901. 



