370 Drs. Brunton and Fayrer on the Nature and Action [June 19, 



2.26. The animal looks scared and is twitching. This guineapig is 

 very active. 



2.30. Another dose injected. The animal is twitching much. It 

 jumped out of the deep box in which it had been placed for observation. 

 Breathiug is hurried. 



2.36. It seems better. Another dose injected into the thigh. 



2.45. Not much effect. Another dose injected. 



2.46. Twitching continues ; animal remains active. It recovered. 



Means of preventing the Effects of the Poison. 



There are three ways in which the toxic effects of a poison may be 

 entirely prevented or greatly diminished. These are : — 1st, by preventing 

 its admission into the blood ; 2nd, by counteracting the effects it 

 produces while it is circulating in the body and sustaining life by 

 artificial respiration; 3rd, by quickening its elimination. The first of 

 these methods is the only one which has hitherto been of any great 

 service in cases of poisoning by the bite of cobras. Various attempts 

 have been made to counteract the effects of cobra-poison by means o£ 

 antidotes ; but the advantage derived from their use is still, to say the 

 least, doubtful. No special attempts, so far as we know, have been 

 made to hasten the elimination of the poison, or at least none have been 

 made avowedly for this purpose, though it is possible that some of the 

 antidotes may have had that effect. This part of the subject we will 

 treat in a future paper. 



The subject of prevention of entry of the virus by ligature or other 

 mechanical measures has been fully discussed in the * Thanatophidia'; it 

 is unnecessary to recur to it here, for the present at all events. 



For the purpose of attempting to counteract the effects of the cobra- 

 poison while it is circulating in the blood, it is necessary to have some 

 idea of its mode of action. 



Mode of Action of the Poison. 



Snake-poison probably produces its fatal or deleterious effects either 

 by completely paralyzing the nerve-centres or other portion of the 

 nervous apparatus, and thus causing arrest of respiration, or by partially 

 paralyzing them and also poisoning the blood, thereby inducing patho- 

 logical conditions of a secondary nature, which may, according to circum- 

 stances, cause the slightest or the most dangerous s} r mptoms. 



The effect produced depends on two sets of conditions : — first, the 

 species of the snake, its actual state at the time, the quantity and 

 quality of its poison, and the circumstances under which it inflicts the 

 bite | second, the species, size, and vigour of the living creature, and the 

 circumstances under which it is bitten. 



Snake-poison is essentially a neurotic, and, when it takes full effect, 



