snak!e-poison literature. 



135 



swallowing, of moving the lips ; the tongue be- 

 comes motionless and hangs out of the mouth, 

 and the saliva, which is secreted in large quan- 

 tities, runs down the face, the patient being 

 equally unable to swallow it or eject it. " It is 

 singular," says Dr. Wall, " that the striking 

 resemblance of these symptoms to the disease 

 known as glosso-laryngeal paralysis has not been 

 previously noticed. Now, the preponderance of 

 medical opinion attributes this disease to lesion 

 of certain tracts of the medulla." Dr. Wall con- 

 firms the views of his predecessors when he re- 

 marks that " it is evident that cobra-poison has 

 a special affinity for acting on the respiratory 

 centre, and those ganglia allied to it in the 

 medulla oblongata which are in connection with 

 the vagus, the spinal accessory, and the hypo- 

 glossal nerves, and that it is directly to this de- 

 structive action that we have to attribute death 

 in most cases of cobra-poisoning. 



Sir Joseph Fayrer first pointed out this fact, 

 and he was confirmed in his opinion by Brunton 

 and the Indian Commission. The respiration 

 becomes slower and slower until the victim dies 

 suffocated. Wall does not believe that cobra- 



Resemblance 



of the 

 symptoms of 

 cobra-poison- ' 

 ing to those 



of glOKSO- 



laryngeal para- 

 lysis. 



