'AN-ACCOUNT OF VENOMOUS SEA SNAKES, O.N THE COAST OF 3IADRAS, 



BY, 



fiOMMUNICATEB BY COLONEL M'KENZIE, 



Soon after the opening of the bar in the month of Odober 1 8T5; 

 reports were circulated at Madras, that a great fhoal of Tea fnakes had 

 entered the. riveFy and that.many natives in croffing it had been bitten 

 and had died, . Thefe reports caufed fo ferious an alarm among the 

 natives that they attraded. the attention of the fdperintendent of the 

 police, who on enquiry afcertained thai three individuals after eroding 

 the river had died, and their d^ath had been occafioned (as was univer- 

 fally believed) by "thefc fnakes, la confequerxce of this information, a 

 reward was oEFered for each fea faake caught on the condition of being 

 carried to the police officeo 



Pandauls were eredted oppofitc to the two principal fords on the 

 river, where under my medical fuperintendence fkilful natives pro- 

 vided with Eau-de-iiice and other remedies \7ere eonflantly Itaticnedj 

 and who were dirccled to. afford immediate aid to thofe perfons who 

 might be unfortunately bitten; this little eflablifhment was continued 

 until the river had become, nearly dry ; during its exiftence fifteen 

 perfons (a6tu^Ily bittea) were carried to the Pandau/s, all of them in a 

 greater or lefs degree exhibiting thofe fymptoms confequent upon the 

 adlion of a powerful animal poifon onthe fyftem ; to all of them, the 

 remedies prefcribcd were promptly adminiltered, and with the happr- 



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