Notes on an alleged species of poisonous Lizard, fyc. 387 



ed many years ago the case of a man bitten at Hazaribaugh, 

 who survived the bite of a Cobra Capello (if I recollect 

 right) 48 hours, or upwards. Lately there was a lamentable 

 casualty published in the papers, of Lieut. Atkinson, who 

 survived the bite of the reptile three or four days. I wish 

 we had the particulars of this case, for it is only by compa- 

 ring results, that accurate conclusions as to pathology and 

 treatment, can ever be arrived at; nor is the death by a 

 snake bite of a gallant officer in the prime of life so com- 

 mon an event, that the particulars should be a letter sealed 

 to . the scientific world in general, or at any rate to the me- 

 dical section of it. Dr. Reuzger (already quoted) says, that 

 in some instances the symptoms go on gradually, and that 

 the sufferer does not die till the 14th day. In cases that 

 do not end fatally again, he contends that serious after-effects 

 follow even at so long an interval as three years. Serpents 

 themselves die from the bites of venomous serpents, and 

 even from their own. 



In a paper published lately by Dr. Knox of Edinburgh,* 

 he ventures to state that no external character whatever can 

 well be trusted in the determination of a snake ; for there 

 are many innoxious snakes which are so closely imitated in 

 their external appearance by others truly poisonous and 

 exceedingly dangerous, that he feels warranted in declaring, 

 " that no snake, however much it resembles a harmless one, 

 or those of a class known to be harmless, should ever be 

 handled, until the person be perfectly assured of its death. 

 Again, on the occasion of a person being bit by a snake, 

 and the dead reptile being produced, the surgeon ought not 

 to rest satisfied with the external appearance of the snake, 

 but proceed, without a moment's delay, to ascertain the pre- 

 sence or absence of poison fangs ; the result must direct his 

 practice. In case of the snake having escaped, excision of 

 the part bitten, ought immediately to be resorted to." 



* In the Lancet. 



3 E 



