78 THE POISONOUS SNAKES OP INDIA. 



(c) " Leucolysin " by destroying white blood cells reduces 



the normal power of the system to resist microbic 

 invasion of all sorts. 



(d) This aids the action of 4 (c) if indeed it is a separate 



entity. 

 (5) (a) " Hsemorrhagin " by damaging the lining membrane of 

 the arterioles allows leakage of the vessel contents. 

 It in conjunction with 4 (a) favours the occurrence 

 of haemorrhages. 

 (b) The local destruction of cells accounts for sloughing of 

 the wounds, and the formation of an ulcer when the 

 dead tissues have separated. 



Compared with the venom of other snakes, cobra venom ranks 

 third in virulence among our Indian Snakes. The sea snake 

 Enhyd/rina valakadyn stands first and the krait, Bungarus cceruleus, 

 s, good second. Lamb's estimates based on injections into rabbits 

 show that cobra venom is one-seventh as virulent as the former, 

 and one-fourth to one-fifth the latter. Rogers experimenting on 

 pigeons puts cobra venom at one-tenth the former, and half the 

 latter. 



Cunningham computed the capacity of the glands at ten lethal 

 doses for man, but Lamb shows that under exceptional circum- 

 stances a single cobra may contain twenty lethal doses in its 

 glands. 



It seems to me that in Colubrine poisons two toxic elements are 

 associated in the murderous assault upon the nervous system, the 

 one precipitate by nature, the other dilatory. This appears to be 

 the interpretation of the facts disclosed to us by those who have 

 worked experimentally in the field of ophitoxicology. It would 

 seem that the more hasty associate ('neurotoxin) has no destructive 

 action upon nerve cells (?). How else can one explain the com- 

 pleteness, and rapidity with which a cobra bitten subject recovers 

 when the dose is sublethal ? In waning the symptoms in such 

 cases disappear about, if not quite, as rapidly as they appear when 

 waxing. Lamb and Hunter state that in monkeys that succumbed 

 to an injection of cobra venom before two hours had elapsed, the 

 nerve cells showed no degenerative changes. If death was delayed 



