THEIE NATUEE AND EFFECTS. 59 



■violent and fatal convulsions, and the result would have 

 been the same if two milligrammes only had been used ; 

 whereas half a milligramme produced only the symptoms 

 of paralysis, followed by asphyxia. The convulsions in 

 this case followed the paralysis, and were dependent on 

 asphyxia, precisely in the same way as they occur in 

 cobra-poisoning. From these experiments we see that 

 though a very small quantity of daboia-poison may only 

 cause gradual paralysis, a somewhat larger one will pro- 

 duce death at once by convulsions in an animal of the 

 same size. In the same way it can be proved that the 

 same amount of daboia-poison given to two animals of 

 different sizes, though the larger may escape the con- 

 vulsions altogether, the smaller may die at once in 

 them. 



We must conclude, then, that in daboia-poison we 

 have to do with a substance capable of producing the 

 most violent convulsions, and that the larger the animal 

 the greater is the quantity required to produce this 

 effect. But the convulsions are in no way dependent 

 upon the entrance of the poison directly into a vein, as 

 sometimes happens in the case of cobra-poison ; and 

 birds are so susceptible to this substance, that it is only 

 with difficulty that a sufficiently weak solution can be 

 prepared to cause any symptoms at all with the avoid- 

 ance of convulsions. The first symptom, then, after the 

 locaP pain, which appears to be peculiarly severe in 

 daboia-poisoning, will very probably be the appearance 



