THE POISONOUS SNAKES OP INDIA. 93 



conviilsive seizures, and he died apparently from suffocation at 

 about 7 P.M. the same day. It was observed that the heart pulsa- 

 ted some time after breathing had ceased. Further, Colonel 

 Dawson says : " There have been several cases of death from bites of 

 the krait here lately, in all of which the prominent symptoms were 

 burning pain of the bitten part, rigidity of the neck, and pain in 

 the abdomen." He was informed by his headkeeper that a neigh- 

 bour's boy of 6 or 7 years of age had awaked one morning recently 

 with an intense pain in the abdomen. He was treated in hospital 

 for stomach-ache, and sent home. On removing the mat on 

 which the child had slept a krait was discovered. A train of 

 eymptoms veVy similar to those experienced by the keeper who 

 died followed, and the child died. No mark of a puncture could 

 be found on the bodJ^ 



No. 3. 



I am indebted to Captain Leonard Forsyth, I. M.S., for the 

 following notes of a case. 



Two bites from a Gcendeus* 3 feet long. Slight Toxasmia 

 Death, from other causes (?) in 36 hours. 



Histm-ij. — At eleven o'clock on the night of the 27th April 191 1, 

 a male, aged 48, a paniwala, well nourished and well developed, was 

 bitten in his own compound. He stated that he walked on some- 

 thing which at first he mistook for a frog, this bit him twice 

 rapidly. 



He was at once attended to by a native hakim whose knowledge 

 of treatment confined itself to "snake stone" tom-toms, the 

 application of mud to his abdomen and eyes. The case was not 

 reported to me until eleven o'clock in the morning, 1 2 hours having 

 elapsed. 



Onset of Symptoms. — Ascertained from his friends the natives. 

 Giddiness and headache, came on about one hour after the actual 

 bite. He complained of some abdominal pain and weakness in his 



* The very detailed description given of the snake which was killed leaves no 

 doubt as to the identification- 



