1881.] Poisons of certain Indian Venomous Snakes. 335 



case. The one selected is condensed from Dr. Hilson's acconnt 

 ("Indian Medical Gazette," October, 1873). 



A punkah, coolie was bitten by a cobra on the right shoulder about 

 half-past 12 o'clock at night. He immediately felt an acute burning 

 pain on the spot, which increased in severity. A quarter of an hour 

 afterwards he said he was beginning to feel intoxicated, but seemed 

 quite rational, and answered questions intelligently. The pupils were 

 natural, the pulse normal, and the respiration was easy. He next 

 began to lose power in his legs, and staggered. Half an hour after 

 he was bitten his lower jaw began to fall, and frothy and viscid saliva 

 to run from his mouth, and he spoke indistinctly, like a man under 

 the influence of liquor, and the paralysis of the legs increased. Forty 

 minutes after the bite he began to moan and shake his head from 

 side to side, and the pulse and respiration were somewhat accelerated. 



He was unable to answer questions, but appeared to be quite con- 

 scious, and his arms were not paralysed. The breathing then became 

 slower and slower, and finally ceased about one hour and ten minutes 

 after the bite, the heart beating for about one minute longer. 



From these cases, and from the evidence given by other experi- 

 ments, we can draw up a summary of the chief facts to be noticed 

 during cobra poisoning. The first manifestation of cobra poison 

 having been injected beneath the skin is a sensation of pain in the 

 bitten part. The evidence of pain occurring in animals is very clear ; 

 the animal turns and licks the spot, and if it is the leg that is 

 wounded it either limps on that leg or, what is more usual, draws it up 

 so as to ease it. 



This action has been termed paralysis of the bitten leg, due to the 

 local contact of the poison with the muscles. Now, though ifc can be 

 proved that the local effect of cobra poison on muscle is to weaken it, 

 yet after the bite of a cobra a very small extent indeed of muscle 

 comes in contact with the poison — very often none at all ; and if the 

 limb were really paralysed it would hang uselessly down, dragging 

 upon the ground, instead of being drawn up. 



This pain is accompanied by, or ratiier is dependent on, a very 

 characteristic local condition, that is worthy of careful attention. If the 

 body of a man or animal killed by snake-bite be examined, there may 

 be scarcely a sign to mark the spot where the snake bit — a scratch or 

 puncture may apparently be the extent of the injury. If an incision 

 be made through the skin and carried through the punctures, very 

 little change will be found in the true skin. It may be somewhat 

 more injected with blood than normal, and the punctures will be found 

 to be intensely so just at their edges, and a small quantity of blood 

 may be effused there. But the areolar tissue lying beneath the true 

 skin is the site of the chief changes. It will frequently be found to be 

 of a purple colour, and to be infiltrated with a large quantity of 



