PREFACE. 



Unpretentious, and concise as this little work, is, it has 

 met with a measure of appreciation greater than the 

 author ever anticipated when contemplating its compila- 

 tion. The first edition of 1,500 copies published in 1908 

 sold out within three months, and the second edition of 

 1,500 copies is now exhausted. The Secretary of the 

 Bombay Natural History Society now contemplates the 

 production of a third edition, and has asked me to revise 

 the previous matter, amplify it, and bring it up to date. 



I find there is little to add to what has been previously 

 written. As far as 1 am aware no new poisonous snake has 

 been described during the last five years within our In- 

 dian Dominions, but the existence of a viper hitherto un- 

 described has been discovered in Waziristan by Major 

 0, A. Smith. As it seems possible this viper may be 

 found hereafter within British territory, I have given a 

 description in this edition, and have christened the snake 

 provisionally ( ? ) Pseudocerastes bicornis. 



The favourable reception given to my earlier work has 

 encouraged me to add a second and third part to the 

 present edition in which I propose to deal with the highly 

 important subject of ophitoxsemia and the treatment of 

 snake poisoning. 



It is to be regretted that I am unable, with very few 

 exceptions, to add to my original remarks on the effect of 

 snake poisons. Our complete ignorance as to whether 

 many of the snakes referred to are fatal, over and above 

 being poisonous, must have struck all readers of the previ- 

 ous editions ; and it was hoped that many who realized 



