Aug. 10, 1888.] 



SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 



131 



Natural Wimt^ 



THE COBRA (NAJA TRIPUDIANS). 

 Of all the death-snakes the cobra is, beyond all doubt, 

 the most important and the most fatal. Whilst 

 authentic cases of recovery from the bite of the rattle- 

 snake, the jacarandi of Brazil, the lance-head of Marti- 

 nique, and the tiger-snake of Australia are on record, 



applied instantly after the introduction of the poison, has 

 proved useless. Perhaps the nearest approach to success 

 has been the maintenance of artificial respiration and the 

 application of electric currents. 



The native physicians of India profess to rely upon 

 certain traditional remedies, but when an animal has 

 been really bitten, or, what is always more conclusive, 

 has been inoculated with a minute quantity of the venom, 

 the case has always ended in death. 



there is no known instance of the venom of the cobra, if 

 once introduced into the system, proving other than 

 deadly. The only certain exceptions to this sad rule are 

 when immediate amputation of the part bitten has been 

 effected. 



We sometimes hear or read of alleged cures, but none 

 of these cases will bear close examination, there being 

 no certain evidence that the bite was really inflicted by 

 a cobra. Numerous experiments have been made upon 

 various animals, in order to test some alleged or supposed 

 remedy, but in all cases the treatment resorted to, though 



If the poison, before it is introduced into the blood, be 

 mixed with the chloride of platinum, it is in some un- 

 known manner decomposed, or at least rendered inert. 

 But if the poison is once instilled into the body, it is use- 

 less to send the chloride of platinum after it. The sup- 

 posed remedy cannot overtake the venom, and merely 

 spends its action upon the blood. So far as it is yet 

 known, no animal enjoys any immunity from this poison ; 

 all, if bitten, succumb. Nay, if the venom is merely ap- 

 plied to the eye-ball, the lips, or to any mucous mem- 

 brane, the result is the same. It was formerly supposed 



