SNAKE-POISON LITERATURE. 



149 



My attention having been drawn to the subject 

 by a notice in the Englishmcm, I performed near- 

 ly one hundred experiments with a view to set- 

 tling the matter as regards cobra-poison, and the 

 conclusions I arrived at are noted below. It is to 

 be remarked that the poison experimented with 

 by Lacerda was that of the bothrops, a snake not 

 nearly so venomous as the cobra. My conclusions 

 were: — 



I. That in dogs no appreciable symptoms of cobra- 

 poisoning followed the hypodermic or intravenous injec- 

 tion of a watery solution of from two to seven centi- 

 grammes of cobra-poiaon when previously mixed with 

 from one to three deoigrammea of permanganate of potash, 

 though under ordinary circumstances such quantities 

 hypodermically injected are more than sufficient to 

 produce fatal results. 



II. That when similar quantities of a watery solution 

 of cobra-poison were hypodermically injected, into dogs, 

 and were followed, either immediately or after an interval 

 of four minutes (the longest interval I have yet sufficient- 

 ly tested), by the hypodermic injection into the same 

 part of a watery solution of permanganate of potash (one 

 to six decigrammes) no appreciable symptoms of cobra- 

 poisoning resulted. 



III. That when glycerine was used, instead of water, to 

 dissolve the dried cobra-poison, the permanganate of 

 potash appeared to have no power over the virulence of 

 the virus. 



My attention 

 is drawn to the 

 subject by an 

 article in tlie 

 Englishman. 



The conclusions 

 drawn from my 

 experiments. 



