72 THE POISONOUS SNAKES OF INDIA. 



Fright. Cobra-poisoning. 



(b) Cold clammy skin, (b) Skin warm, 



(e) Feeble or imperceptible pulse. (c) Pulse of normal force and 



regularity. 



(5) Breathing shallow, sighing and (5) Breathing gradually becomes 



weak, and unduly freqvient (30 more and more laboured, and 



a minute or more). quickened ; gasping towards 



close . 



(6) No paralyses. (6) Paralyses. Gradual weakness 



of legs mounting upwards to 

 trunk and head. The head 

 droops. The eyelids droop. 

 Swallowing becomes difficult, 

 the lower lip falls away from 

 the teeth, and saliva dribbles 

 from the mouth. Articulation 

 too becomes difficult. 



(7) Death from cardiac depression. (7) Death from respiratory depres- 



sion. 



The symptoms of fright often very speedily declare themselves, 

 far more speedily than is ever the case in snake poisoning. In 

 some reported cases we read that the patient is seen or is brought 

 to hospital in a senseless or nearly senseless condition, it may be a 

 few minutes after the bite, and as one reads the record it seems 

 that this unconscious state has been interpreted as the outcome of 

 absorption of venom, and remedial measures have been at once taken 

 on this supposition. 



The incomplete and unsatisfactory fashion in which many cases 

 of snake-bite are reported, makes one feel that much valuable in- 

 formation relating to the clinical manifestations of the various 

 venoms is being lost to science each year, and with regard to many 

 of these ophitoxins we know absolutely nothing. I would propose 

 that every case of snake-bite should be returned on a prescribed 

 form similar to those now in use for recording cases of cancer and 

 enteric fever. If all cases were so returned a greater uniformity 

 and vahie in the records would be forthcoming, one would be able to 

 judge the constancy of the signs both local and general which 

 accompany the various forms of poisoning, any differences in the 

 clinical manifestations occasioned by the various venoms would 



