THE POISONOUS SNAKES OF INDIA. S^ 



Both lungs were much congested, and on making a sectioiir 

 blood flowed freely from them. 



The liver, spleen, and kidneys were of a deeper colour than 

 usual, but otherwise they were healthy. 



The membranes of the brain were much congested, but only a 

 small quantity of serum was found either external to that organ 

 or in its ventricles. The brain substance was nowhere softened 

 or diseased, biit a section displayed numerous iruncta cruenta. 



The post-mortem appearances, in short, were identical with 

 those seen in the lower animals after- cobra bite, except that the' 

 blood did not coagiilate on exposure to the air. On examining 

 this fluid with a microscope, magnifying 500 diameters, I was 

 unable to observe any of the peculiar cell formations which are 

 said by Professor Halford to be discernible in it after death from' 

 snake-bite. The white cells were not increased in numbers,, 

 while the red corpuscles were, to a great extent, broken up and 

 had coalesced, so far as to form bright red amoi'phous masses. 

 Many of them, however, had undergone no change. 



No. 2. 



Cobra bite. Severe toxaemia. Eecovery. 



Reported by Dr. Vincent Richards and quoted by A. J. Wall^ 

 (Indian Snake Poisons, p. 45.) 



A man named Bamon Das, aged forty years, was bitten bv a 

 snake on the shoulder about 3 o'clock in the morning. From his- 

 description it was probably the snake termed by the natives of 

 Bengal the •' Teutuliah Karis " (a spectacled cobra) about four 

 feet long. He had complained, after the bite, of feeling in- 

 toxicated, had vomited, and could neither stand nor speak though 

 he had continued to be perfectly conscious. At 10 a.m., when 

 Dr. Richards saw him, he was being supported in the sitting 

 posture by two men. Near the posterior border of the deltoid of 

 the left arm were two rather indistinct fang-marks at some con- 

 siderable distance from each other ; one fang-mark, however, more 

 resembled a scratch than a puncture. The arm was painful, hotr 



