THEIE NATURE AND EFFECTS. 347 



Experiment I. 

 A dog was bitten on the leg by a vigorous cobra. 



2.15 P.M. Bitten. 



2.17 P.M. A ligature of india-rubber applied above 

 the bitten part. 



3.16 P.M. The part containing the poison carefully 

 dissected out. 



3.20 P.M. Ligature removed. 



The dog recovered completely, having suffered only 

 slightly from the effects of the poison. 



Here, two minutes after the dog was bitten the ligature 

 was applied, but no further steps were taken for one 

 hour, and yet the dog was saved ; and if the interval 

 between the application of the ligature and excision had 

 been prolonged to a day, the result would have been 

 the same. After the poison-bearing tissue had been 

 dissected out, it was steeped in water, and the resulting 

 fluid injected into a fowl, which died rapidly from 

 cobra-poisoning, showing that there was abundant poison 

 in the tissue to destroy life, if it could only have entered 

 the circulation. 



* It is difficult to say what are the limits of time at 

 which the ligature may be usefully applied, as it 

 depends on so many various circumstances. If the 

 fang of the snake should chance to have entered a vein 

 and thus the poison have been thrown directly into the 

 circulation, as certainly happens sometimes, it is clear 



10 * 



