18 



Prof. Pedler on Cobra Poison. 



[Jan. 17, 



collected by the various Provincial Governments of India, but as 

 might be expected the difficulty of obtaining correct returns is very 

 great, and it is certain that the number registered is far short of the 

 real mortality resulting from this cause. Even with such incorrect 

 returns, however, as many as 11,416 deaths in India from the bites of 

 poisonous snakes were reported during a single year,* and it is pro- 

 bably within the mark i/o say that in the whole of India the annual 

 number of deaths from snake bite is not less than 15,000. 



Experiments without number have been made with a view to dis- 

 cover an antidote for snake virus ; but although many so-called reme- 

 dies have been reported, it has been found on closer examination, that 

 none of them have been of the slightest efficacy either in modifying 

 the action of the poison, or in any way tending to save life. The 

 nearest approach to success among these unsuccessful remedies appears 

 to have been the system of artificial respiration, suggested by Sir J. 

 Fayrer, and extensively experimented with by the Snake Poison Com- 

 mission at Calcutta, whose report was published in 1874, f and who 

 found that, although life might be prolonged by the use of artificial 

 respiration after poisoning by snake virus, in no case was there any 

 ultimate hope of saving life by this means. 



So far as I am acquainted with their results, the researches of other 

 chemists have been hitherto unsuccessful either in elucidating the 

 nature of the poison, or in ascribing any composition to the active 

 principle which must be present. This want of success is the only 

 justification of my bringing the result of my own researches before the 

 Royal Society at all ; while the great practical importance of a satis- 

 factory solution of the problem will, I hope, be accepted as my apology 

 for laying my work before them in its present incomplete form. 



Of all the snakes in India the cobra (Naja tripudians) is the cause 

 of the largest number of deaths, and the experiments here described 

 were all made with cobra poison, extracted from the snakes in my 

 own presence, by the usual method as described in published memoirs 

 on the subject of snake poisoning. As may be imagined, the supply of 

 cobra poison which is obtainable is very small, each snake yielding 

 only from one to three grains of solid poison ; so that, in all my expe- 

 riments, I have been continually hampered with the extreme difficulty 

 of procuring a sufficient amount of the poison to work with on a 

 satisfactory scale. In submitting my results to the Society, I must at 

 the outset state that it is possible that after further experiments I may 

 have to modify some of the results here given. 



The liquid poison, which, when extracted from the cobra, has a 

 slightly alkaline reaction, was found to have a specific gravity of 1*095 



* 1869. See Fayrer, Proc. Eoy. Soc, xxi, p. 360. 



f Report on Indian and Australian Snake Poisoning. Bengal Secretariat Press, 

 Calcutta. 



