18 INDIAN SNAKE POISONS, 



a large quantity of coagulable purple blood-like fluid. 

 In addition to this effusion the whole of the neighbour- 

 ing vessels are intensely injected, which injection 

 gradually fades as the site of the poisoned part is 

 receded from, so that a bright scarlet ring surround^ 

 the purple area, and this in its turn gradually fades into 

 the normal colour of the neighbouring tissue. At the 

 margin, also, the purple blood-like effusion is replaced 

 by a pinkish effusion, which wells out as the incision is 

 made. This effusion of pinkish fluid may often be 

 traced up in the tissues surrounding the vessels which 

 conveyed to the system the poison they had absorbed 

 from the part. In one case, in which the victim was 

 bitten on the hand, the effusion from the veins could be 

 traced as high as the elbow. These are the essential 

 characters of the local effects produced by cobra-bite ; 

 but they may vary a good deal in degree, depending, 

 probably, upon the amount of poison injected and the 

 time the subject lived after being bitten. It has been 

 asserted that the nature of these local changes in snake- 

 bite is merely a hsemorrhage into the tissues from vessels 

 that have been divided by the fangs of the snake, with 

 effusion of blood from the vessels around. But though 

 it is true that sometimes a very small amount of blood 

 may be found at the site of the punctures, yet it is clear 

 that this explanation will not account either for the 

 great pain that is felt in the part, or for the intense 

 injection of the neighbouring vessels. To determine the 



