SNAKE- VENOMS. 477 



require complete saturation with neutral salts to precipitate 

 them from their solutions, these bodies may probably be 

 classed amongst the albumoses. 



When a solution of venom is raised to between 70° and 

 80° C, in the case of cobra and viper poison a white, 

 nocculent precipitate appears. After removal of this 

 precipitate the solution is still, in the case of the cobra, 

 almost as deadly as before the application of heat. Viper 

 poison, however, loses almost all its toxic power, thus 

 showing how extremely sensitive viper poisons are >to heat 

 when in solution. The degree of heat and the length of 

 time of exposure being important factors, the effect 

 produced also appears to depend on the concentration of 

 the solution heaited. 



From experiments made by Captain Lamb, I. M.S., and 

 the writer, on the amount of coagulable proteid in cobra 

 *and viper venom, it would appear that cobra venom 

 contains practically the same amount of proteids coagulable 

 by heat as daboia poison contains, namely, 25 per cent. 

 As regards cobra venom, the estimation was widely 

 different from that obtained by Weir Mitchell and 

 Reichert, who state that cobra venom contains only 1*75 

 per cent, of proteid coagulated by heat. Regarding 

 daboia, there is no record of any estimation to be found in 

 the literature of the subject ; its amount, however, is much 

 the same as the quantity of coagulable proteid in crotalus 

 venom, namely, 24'G per cent. 



We might now contrast the symptoms occurring in 

 persons who have been bitten. 



The cobra has a poison fatal to almost all vertebrate 

 animals. The mongoose, about whose immunity so much 

 has been written, if fairly bitten by a cobra, most certainly 

 dies. His long, wire-like hair and agile movements, 

 however, protect him almost completely. 



