1871.] 89 [Sceva. 



seemed to account, when combined with the usual credulity shown 

 in such matters, for the many strange stories and absurd reports that 

 had been published concerning the poisonous snakes of distant coun- 

 tries, such as India; and in many instances he had found that men 

 holding high positions in the government civil service, and physicians 

 residing in that country, had published statements which had been 

 accepted here and in Europe as facts — well established by their per- 

 sonal observations and careful investigations, — whereas they were 

 founded merely on the stories told by the jugglers, snake-charmers, 

 and other ignorant people. In some popular works on natural his- 

 tory recently published, which on many subjects appeared to be care- 

 fully written, there seemed in this matter a great want of careful 

 discrimination. In J. G. Wood's natural history of reptiles, several 

 pages were devoted to accounts of antidotes, such as the leaves and 

 root of the Aristolochia Indica, the "snake-stone," etc. These, with a 

 great many other reputed antidotes had been found by recent in- 

 vestigations to be utterly worthless. 



Mr. Sceva during the past three years, while attached to the 

 Indian Museum at Calcutta, had assisted Dr. Fayrer, (the Professor 

 of Surgery in the Medical College there) in his numerous experi- 

 ments with the venom of poisonous snakes. Among those made to 

 test the value of local applications, was that of the use of the actual 

 cautery by plunging pointed red-hot irons deeply into the flesh in the 

 places where the fangs had entered, but this failed to destroy the poi- 

 son. This result, however, would not surprise one who fully under- 

 stood the rapidity with which the blood passes through the soft tissues 

 of the body and the instantaneous action of the poison upon it. 



To show the rapid effect of the poison on the blood, Mr. S. read 

 one of Dr. Fayrer' s experiments that he had witnessed, in which the 

 inguinal fold of the skin of a dog was held by two pairs of long- 

 bladed forceps in such manner as to include a triangular piece of 

 about three inches on a side. The cobra's fangs were applied to the 

 middle of the free edge and with a sharp scalpel held in readiness 

 the piece of the fold of the skin was at once cut oat, and yet the 

 dog died from the effects of the poison in fifty-nine minutes. Dr. 

 Fayrer in his report made the following comments. 



"This was a very interesting and instructive experiment, most 

 clearly demonstrating the deadly nature of the virus and the awful 

 rapidity with which it passes into the circulation. The bitten part 

 was not merely excised as we speak of excising the parts around the 



