2 THE POISONOUS SNAKES OF INDIA. 



snake. It is only this knowledge in conjunction witli the other 

 that can make rational treatment possible, by teaching him when 

 to withhold antivenene, and when to administer it. 



It is to meet the unsatisfactory state of our knowledge on the 

 subject of the identification of snakes that these papers have been 

 contemplated, in the hope that they may bring this part of the 

 subject up to a standard approaching that to which we have arrived 

 in the study of snake venoms. Fully appreciating the already 

 over voluminous and ever-increasing subjects which the profession- 

 of medicine embraces I have endeavoured to make the subject as 

 practical as possible to the oriental practitioner by avoiding 

 technicalities, or, where this cannot be done, explaining them with 

 the aid of outline drawings, by which means I hope to bring the 

 matter of identification within the easy grasp of hospital assistants 

 and assistant surgeons, as well as medical officers. 



In Volume XIV of the Bombay Natural History Society's Journal 

 I wrote a paper on the distinguishing characters between poisonous 

 and non-poisonous snakes, and appended a key in which I attempted 

 to frame easy rules for their separation. This key far from satisfied 

 me at the time, its length and complexity detracting from its 

 practical value ; however, in spite of its shortcomings, it has been 

 favorably received, and I have been repeatedly asked for spare 

 copies till my stock is exhausted. Eecently the Inspector-General 

 of Civil Hospitals in the Central Provinces wrote asking if he 

 might circulate this paper in his Province, and the compliment 

 conveyed in this request has caused me to revise it. Since its 

 publication, in 1901, I have examined many hundreds of snakes 

 collected by myself and others as well as large collections in various 

 institutions, including the British Museum, and I am, therefore, 

 now better qualified to deal with this subject. As a result I find 

 that I can simplify and curtail the original key so as to considerably 

 enhance its practical utility. 



The good reception accorded to this first brief paper has prompted 

 me to extend my remarks, so that in the present paper I propose to 

 deal in detail with every known poisonous land snake within our 

 Indian Possessions. The easy identification of these is my first 

 object, and one which I hope to assist by means of outline drawings, 



