THEIR NATURE AND EFFECTS. 97 



In the chronic cases of poisoning by this snake, it is 

 difficult to judge how far the nervous system is involved 

 in the complicated state of disease that has been 

 induced. In Experiment VII., on the first day on which 

 any change was noticed, being the sixth day from the 

 receipt of the bite, there was vomiting, but it could 

 hardly have been the direct effect of the presence of 

 the poison after this interval ; it was probably a result 

 of the general disease that was in course of development. 

 The other prominent symptom was the great weakness 

 manifested ; the animal became exceedingly feeble, but 

 there did not seem to be any sign of paralysis; the 

 symptom seemed to be due entirely to general muscular 

 debility, caused by the disease. In the same experi- 

 ment, on the eighth day, there was seen slight pendu- 

 lousness of the tongue ; but this specia.1 sign, so marked 

 in the acute cases, was absent in the other instances of 

 chronic poisoning by this snake. 



In birds, the nervous symptoms present are exactly 

 those of cobra-poisoning. There is drowsiness, with 

 inability to keep the eyes open, general paralysis rapidly 

 advancing, asphyxia, and death. 



Effect of the Poison of the Bdngaeus Fasciatus 

 ON Respiration. 



As 9 rule, the extinction of respiration by this poison 

 is a very slow and gradual process. The stethometric 



7 



