THE POISONOUS SNAKES OP INDIA. »•' 



From this time the arm got gradually better, and the man com- 

 pletely recovei'ed. 



[ Bemwrks. — In this case we have an example of severe cobra- 

 poisoning, well described, in which the nerve symptoms were 

 fully developed and yet, when they had passed away, the man %vas 

 at once in a state of thorough and complete recovery. — F. W.J 



No. 3. 



Cobra bite. Toxaemia. Recovery due to antivenene injections. 



Reported by Captain Lamb, I.M.S., in the " Bombay Natural 

 History Journal " (Vol. XIV, p. 233). The " officer " referred to. 

 was Captain Lamb himself, and the note is on this account 

 specially valuable. 



An officer of the laboratory, while assisting in extracting the- 

 poison from a full-sized cobra, put his fingers where he had no 

 business to, that is, in the neighbourhood of the snake's mouth. 

 In a moment the animal had buried one of its fangs in the point 

 of the right thumb. The thumb was at once withdrawn, but not 

 before the total amount of poison in the gland had been injected. 

 The symptoms, both objective and subjective, &c., which followed,. 

 were carefully noted as they occurred. Locally there was much 

 pain at the site of the injection. Swelling of the parts soon began 

 and gradually became well marked. A bloody serum oozed out 

 from the puncture and continued to do so for 24 hours. 



Fortunately for the experiment no fresh serum was available, 

 and we had to inject two bottles of a serum which had been the 

 property of the Society and which was at least four years old. 

 Just the week previous to the accident I had tested this serum 

 with cobra venom on rats and had found that it had little or no 

 neutralising power. The patient then went on with his work. 

 About three hours after the bite he began to get lethargic and 

 lazy, did not wish to work and preferred to lie down. This wa& 

 soon followed by sickness and violent vomiting. Then he noticed 

 that his legs were weak, he was unable to move about and had 

 perforce to adopt the prone position. It appeared then that the 



