20 INDIAN SNAKE POISONS, 



acute effusion thnt scarcely differs from blood, to a slight 

 hypersemia attended with a pale serous-like effusion. 



From these considerations it appears evident that the 

 local effect of cobra-poison is simply severe and acute 

 inflammation, to which the pain attending cobra-bite i% 

 due, with a more than ordinary tendency to effusion 

 from the blood-vessels. Corroborative testimony to 

 what is here advanced must be present to the mind of 

 everyone who has had much to do in the manipulation 

 of cobra-poison. A very frequent, but involuntary, ex- 

 periment is to get some of the poison into the eye. 

 Should the circumstance not be at once noticed, so as to 

 permit the eye being washed out immediately, after a 

 very short time a smarting pain is felt in it ; and if it 

 is examined it will be found red and watering, the 

 vessels becoming rapidly enlarged, and, in fact, an acute 

 attack of conjunctivitis w^ith chemosis is set up, which 

 may last for days. 



The subject has been specially dwelt on here, as on 

 it can be founded an easy method of deciding whether 

 a person has really been poisoned by a snake. One 

 of the most difficult subjects in connection with snake- 

 bite is to know for certain whether the patient has 

 really been jioisoned by a snake or not, for it is clear 

 that unless the venomous snake really injects his poison 

 into the victim there is no danger. Now, the mark of 

 the teeth is no guide, or next to none, because a cobra 

 may not leave a single mark visible to the naked eye ; 



