356 



Dr. A. J. Wall. On the 



[June 16,. 



haemorrhage. There was no paralysis or any other special symptom. 

 The case presents in every detail a complete contrast to Dr. Richard's 

 case of cobra poisoning, where for some hours the patient was in the 

 greatest danger from nerve symptoms, and yet the next day made a 

 full and complete recovery. 



This chronic form of daboia poisoning occurs whenever only a small 

 quantity of daboia poison is injected. 



Experiment XX. 



A cat had about 5 mgrms. of daboia poison in solution injected into 

 its leg. No symptom was noticed for about twelve hours, when it 

 became ill, refused food, had diarrhoea, and remained in this state till 

 the fourth day, when it died. 



In regard to the paralysis caused by daboia poison, there a few 

 points to be observed. It certainly supervenes earlier than in cobra 

 poisoning, but it does not extinguish the respiratory function nearly 

 so soon. Paraplegia is occasionally noticed in dogs, especially if the 

 hind legs have been much convulsed. It is probably due to exhaustion 

 of the conducting elements of the cord by the violence of the con- 

 vulsion-producing discharges. Care, however, should be taken not 

 to confound it with inability to use the hind quarters occasioned by 

 the pain of the local injection, which appears to be peculiarly severe. 

 Again, the paralysis of the lips, tongue, larynx, and pharynx, which is 

 so marked a feature in cobra poisoning, is absent in daboia poisoning. 

 The tongue, instead of being pendulous, is retracted, and the larynx, 

 so far from being paralysed, gives utterance to loud screams, often as 

 long as life lasts, as in Experiment VIII. It is as if the poison exerted 

 its paralysing influence on the main motor tract, and had not that 

 marked affinity for the respiratory and allied centres that cobra poison 

 has ; a conclusion borne out by the way in which it commences its. 

 action, and by the time it takes to extinguish the respiratory 

 function. 



The course of the respiration in daboia poisoning is of necessity as- 

 varied as there are modes of death from the poison. Chart No. 6 T 

 from a fowl, gives a typical example of respiration when the primary 

 convulsions are fatal. It contains nearly all the chest movements 

 from the moment of injection till death. The first sixteen respirations 

 are normal, the excursus is then slightly increased, and a slight 

 retardation is to be observed ; then without further warning, the most 

 violent convulsions took place, and with them life was extinguished. 

 It affords corroborative evidence of the fact, that asphyxia has nothing 

 to do with the causation of the convulsions, as respiration is perfectly 

 well performed up to the moment of their occurrence. Chart No. 7 

 is from a fowl that was poisoned by daboia poison, which had been 

 heated in solution to 100° C, and so deprived of its power of causing 



