1870.] Proceedings of the Asiatic SoHety. 109 



At any rate it was curious to find some of the insular species of 

 snakes, though provided with a perfect poison apparatus, much less 

 fatal in the effect of their bite than other closely allied species in 

 Bengal were. The investigation of the causes which had led to 

 this difference ought to be attractive. 



A short discussion on the effects of snake-poisoning ensued. 

 Mr. W a 1 d i e desired to know what the symptoms were resulting 

 from the bite of the Nicobar vipers, and whether they are the same 

 as usually known to originate from the bite of other poisonous 

 snakes. 



Dr. Stoliczka said that the Nicobarese only speak of a swell- 

 ing of the bitten part, and that they exhibit very little fear of these 

 snakes. Dr. Stoliczka also observed that the poison gland in the 

 species of Trimeresurus which he had examined, has a simple 

 glandular form without any appendages, but the skin forming it 

 is very tough, and internally partitioned by numerous irregular 

 lamellae. The poison of the fresh snake was always in a compara- 

 tively small quantity present, and appeared less viscose than the 

 Cobra poison. The differences between the effects of poisoning 

 of the Cohra and Daboia had been pointed out by Dr. Fayrer. 



II. — Notes on places of historical interest in the District 

 oe Hugli, — by H. Blochmann, Esq., M. A. (I. — Maddran and 

 Panduah.) 



The Historians of India assign to Bengal much narrower limits 

 than we do at the present day. In the Tabaqdt i Naciri and the 

 Tarikh i Firuzshdhi, the earliest Muhammadan histories in which 

 Bengal is mentioned, the territories attached to the towns of Sat- 

 ganw (Hugli), Sunnarganw (East of Dacca), and Lak'hnauti (Gaur), 

 are called Diydr i Bang, perhaps a verbal translation of the old 

 term Bangadesli. The districts north of the Granges were partly attach- 

 ed to Lak'hnauti, partly to Sunnarganw. The word Bengal or Ban- 

 galak, if I am not mistaken, does not occur in the Tabaqdt i Ndgiri, 

 and is but rarely met with in the Tarikh i Firuzshdhi. Nor does it 

 occur on Muhammadan coins. One of the earliest passages, in 



