THE 
EDITOR’S PREFACE. 
The present Fasciculus is the first of a projected Continuation of an Account 
of East Indian Serpents, begun in the Description of the Coromandel Collec- 
tion lately published. 
The Court of Directors considering it proper that an attempt should be 
made to complete the account of those pernicious animals, by inviting and 
encouraging research to be extended over the whole of British India, was 
pleased to transmit instructions to the Presidencies abroad, pointing out in 
detail the most probable means of success ; and to render the conveyance of 
specimens, drawings, or other communications relative to Serpents, more easy, 
and less precarious, it was regulated they should be sent home, addressed to 
the Directors. 
In these instructions, it was specially recommended to procure and send to 
the India-House, specimens in spirits, descriptions, and coloured drawings, 
of all such Serpents as were not comprehended in the Coromandel Collection ; 
and that the Medical Board should be instructed to solicit the free commu- 
nication of the cases of venomous bites, which future experience might furnish ; 
as likewise the result of experiments made for discovering the properties of 
the poison, and the effects of medicinal applications. 
An accurate discrimination of noxious from harmless Serpents, serves at the 
same time to lessen the prevalent terror of their poison, and to assist decision 
on the comparative merit of remedies employed : and whatever improvements 
may be expected in the medical treatment, must be ultimately established on 
the aggregate of facts gradually collected from extensive experience. 
Descriptions and drawings, from living or recent subjects, made on the 
spot, are, no doubt preferable for ascertaining the species, to descriptions made 
from specimens preserved in spirits. But the former are not to be always 
expected. Of persons in India disposed to furnish specimens, some may 
harbour an aversion to handling even the dead reptile; others, through 
