102 THE LAND-MARKS OF 



"the principal seat of the diseased action is the 

 lungs," but he appeared to think that this action 

 is confined to cases of viper snake-bite. He be- 

 lieved that the virus of colubrine-snakes acts pri- 

 marily and principally on the blood and muscles, 

 tending to coagulate the former and convulse 

 and paralyze the latter. IJe was erroneously of 

 opinion that the bite of the daboia is generally 

 more dangerous than that of the cobra. 



In 1874 I wrote : — 



" At no period has the subject of snake-poison- 

 ing received so much attention as it has during 

 the past eight or ten years. Drs. Fayier and 

 Shortt in India, Dr. Weir Mitchell in America, 

 Dr. Halford in Australia, and Dr. Brunton — in 

 conjunction with Dr. Fayrer — in England, have 

 all been labouring in the hope of finding that 

 which has baffled the ingenuity of ages, and 



bezoar. All of them (excepting the first, possessed of a 

 slight absorbent power) were quite inert, and incapable 

 of having any effect, exclusive of that which they might 

 produce, as superstitious medicines, on the imagination 

 of a patient.'' The first kind of stone referred to by Dr. 

 Davy was manufactured by the monks of Manilla, who 

 carried on a lucrative trade in them with Indian mer- 

 chants. 



