Tl PEEFACE. 



various remedies that have been proposed for snake- 

 bite — and they have been very many — it has not been 

 thought necessary to give the unsatisfactory results of 

 the various trials. The effect of potassium permanganate 

 in destroying the activity of cobra-poison when mixed 

 with it before injection was ascertained by the author 

 some four years ago, but frequent experiment has 

 convinced him that as a practical method of treating 

 the constitutional effects of the poison it is of no avail. 

 The recommendations for treatment given have been 

 tested practically, and the circumstances under which 

 the misfortune happens have been constantly borne in 

 mind. Cases of poisoning by snakes do not usually 

 occur in crowded cities with hospitals always open, 

 vyith every appliance to receive the sufferer, but in the 

 fields where the peasant steps on the lurking reptile, 

 or more frequently still in the remote village where 

 the wife is bitten in a dark corner of her hut by the 

 snake which superstition has compelled her household 

 to protect. Directions for treatment, to be of use, must 

 be adapted to these contingencies. 



The snakes mentioned have been referred to, as a 

 rule, by their scientific names. Had vernacular terms 

 been employed it would not have been possible to 

 select any that would have been intelligible except in 

 very limited areas. Thus the Bungarus coeruleus is the 

 Krait of Bengal, but the Gedi Paragudu of the Co4o- 

 mandel coast. The Echis carinata is iheA/ae of Delhi, 



