100 COPHIAS VIRIDIS. 



venomous serpents. In the second volume of the Medico-Chirur- 

 gical Transactions, there is a series of cases related by Mr. Ireland, 

 surgeon of the 60th regiment, where arsenic was administered in 

 very large doses with good effects. Mr. Ireland, on his arrival in 

 the island of St. Lucia, was informed that an officer and several 

 men belonging to the 68th regiment, had died from the bites of the 

 Fer-de -lance, and that every thing had been tried by the medical 

 men, to no purpose, he was determined to give arsenic a full trial. 

 In these cases he exhibited two drachms of Fowler's solution with 

 ten drops of laudanum, in the effervescing draught, and repeated 

 it every three or four hours. Externally, the parts were frequently 

 fomented with warm water, and rubbed with a liniment composed 

 of oil of turpentine, liquid ammonia, and olive oil. 



COPHIAS VIRIDIS.— Green Cophias. 



Spec. Char. Body green, with a narrow yellowish 

 line on each side ; head covered with scales similar to 

 those on the back ; length two feet six inches. 



Coluber gramiueus ; Shaw, Zool. iii. p. 420. Trimesurus Viridis ; La Cepedc, 

 Ann. Mus. iv. t. 56, f. 2. Bodroo Pain ; Rusje I Ind. Serp. p. 13, t. 9. 



It is to Dr. Russel that we owe our knowledge of this remarkable 

 species, which is a native of Tndia, and was sent to him from 

 Vizagapatam, in October, 1788. It is of a grass-green colour, 

 with a narrow yellowish line on each side, and is furnished with 

 remarkably long and slender fangs. The abdominal scuta are of a 

 pale straw colour, and some of them have a small green spot on 

 each side. The long slender fangs, exposed on opening the mouth, 

 seem to indicate its being highly noxious ; the person who brought 

 it to Dr. Russel affirmed that its power of killing extended only to 

 the smaller animals, not to dogs or sheep ; and that to man, its 

 bite caused various disorders, but never death. 



