Notes on an alleged species of poisonous Lizard, 8fc. 385 



rate, its bite (the young of the Karrait, brought as a Cobra 

 Manilla,) always produces immediate death, which Dr. Rus- 

 sell was led to suspect the truth of, from finding that on 

 repeated trials, it seldom killed chickens in less than half 

 an hour, and dogs in an hour and a half; when full grown, 

 on the other hand, it is one of the most formidable of poi- 

 sonous serpents. A friend of mine lost a beautiful male 

 spaniel at Baraset many years ago, which chasing a hare, jump- 

 ed into a bush, and was bitten by a snake, on which the poor 

 creature retreated instantly out of the bush, turned round two 

 or three times, and fell down dead, before his master could 

 run up to him, and not surviving the bite more than a mi- 

 nute or two, if so much. The snake was killed, but unfor- 

 tunately not preserved. It is said to have been a thick 

 short one, marked with black rings. The dog's mouth was 

 enveloped in foam, and its body immediately swelled enor- 

 mously. 



There are two periods when the bite of a snake is pecu- 

 liarly deadly, viz. at the commencement of the hot weather, 

 when after hybernation it has all its energies fresh, and at 

 coupling time. The bite of large and old serpents is more 

 dangerous, generally speaking, than that of small and young 

 ones, and does not depend so much, it would appear, upon 

 the intensity, as the quantity of the poison inoculated. From 

 the experience of Dr. Reuzger, a German physician who 

 spent six years in Paraguay, where there is a great variety 

 of poisonous serpents of the genera Crotalus, Lachesis, 

 Cophias, Elaps, &c. it appears that the danger of their bite 

 varies according to the situation of the bite. Wounds of 

 vascular parts, and of large blood vessels, are generally fol- 

 lowed by speedy death. The effect, he states, is much slower 

 when the poison is applied to denuded tendons or nerves ; 

 and in parts that contain no vessels, as the callous cuticle of 

 the soles, no effect is produced. The time in which the 

 bite of a snake may prove fatal, varies considerably. In the 



