THEIR NATURE AND EFFECTS. 29 



of death, and the deadening of the nerves is simply the 

 result of the excessive nervous discharges that have 

 taken place through them. Thus, though the trunk 

 or extremity of the nerve may he found paralysed, this 

 4oes not prove that paralysis was the cause of death, or 

 that it was the direct result of the action of the poison 

 on the nerve. 



In this direction another point must he taken into 



account. One of the most characteristic features of 



• 



cobra-poisoning in the human subject, is paralysis of 

 the legs. The patient is unable to walk or to stand, 

 though his arms as yet have not experienced any loss of 

 power. Now it would be difficult to suppose that this 

 was due to the terminations of the motor nerves of the 

 legs becoming paralysed, while those of the arms 

 remained unaffected. It is much more probable that 

 the spinal cord is becoming paralysed ; one of the first 

 effects of which would be that it would lose the power 

 of maintaining the tone aud necessary contraction in the 

 rhany complex groups of muscles on which the upright 

 posture is dependent. 



But in cobra-poisoning in dogs, paralysis of the 

 hind-legs without the fore, is rarely seen. In the vast 

 majority of cases, power is lost simultaneously in all 

 four members. As a rule, in those cases in which it 

 has been noticed that the hind-legs have suffered first, 

 the animal has been bitten on the hind-leg, which would 

 always cause a certain amount of lameaess, and diffi- 



