THEIE NATURE AND EFFECTS. 49 



CHAPTER II. 



the physiological effects of the poison op 

 eussell's vipee (daboia eussellii). 



The snake that it will be most advantageous, for various 

 reasons, to consider next is the Dabuia Russellii, an 

 extremely poisonous snake, found in great abundance 

 in Bengal proper, in many other parts of India, and in 

 Ceylon. It is a very fierce snake, striking after a little 

 provocation with deadly precision. It has a very 

 stridulous noisy hiss. It belongs to the viperine family 

 of snakes, of which it is a typical member. For this 

 reason it is taken here as an example of a viperine 

 snake in the same way that the cobra was taken as the 

 representative of the colubrine family. It will be best 

 to follow the same plan that was adopted in cobra- 

 poisoning, detailing first the symptoms of a sufficient 

 number of cases of daboia-poisoning to elicit all the 

 points of importance, and then to discuss the conditions 

 on which the fatal results depend. There does not 



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