APPENDIX No. II. 
52 
As Snakes in general have no apparatus to wash the cornea, these particular species must have some 
peculiarities in their mode of life, with which we are not at present acquainted. 
EXPLANATION OF THE FIGURES. 
PLATE III. 
Fig. 1. Represents a side view of the head of the Fer de lance, or Yellow Snake of Martinico, to shew the 
external appearance of the orifice with its relative situation to the nostril and the eye. The parts 
are delineated of their natural size. 
Fig. 2. A side view of the head of the same Snake, in which the bag is laid open. At the aperture of the 
cavity, which opens towards the cornea, there is a double row of small projecting points. 
Fig. 3. The cuticle of the Rattle-Snake, after it had been cast off from one side of the head, represented of 
its natural dimensions. In this view the internal surface only of the cuticle is seen, There is an 
aperture of an irregularly oval form, which is the opening of the nostril: a little farther on is the 
lining of the rounded bag, in a distended state ; nearer the eye is the cavity communicating with the 
space before the cornea, it is of an oval form, and has a narrow neck ; beyond this neck is the trans- 
parent cornea, which in the Snake is cuticular, and is shed with the external covering of the other 
parts. Through the transparent cornea a bristle is seen passing before its external surface into the 
cavity. 
This figure is taken from a preparation in the Hunterian Museum. 
ISTo. III. 
Extract from Mr. Home’s Account of the Case of a Man who died by the Bite of a Rattle-Snake. 
Read before the Royal Society, December 21, 1809. 
The following cases were sent from India, to my late friend Dr. Patrick Russell: they arrived after his 
death, and Mr. Claud Russell very kindly gave them to me, knowing the subject of them to be one, in 
which I had taken an interest, 
A boy, a slave of a gentleman in India, was bitten by a snake called Kamnlee by the natives, in the lower 
part of the arm, at eight o’clock in the evening. The blood flowed very freely for some time. He died 
next day at noon in great pain. 
A sepoy, 60 years of age, was admitted into the hospital of his regiment, under the care of Mr. Perrin, 
assistant surgeon, at four o’clock in the afternoon of the 15th of October, 1802, in consequence of his being 
bitten by a Cobra di Capello, on the back part of the hand. At the time of his admission he complained of 
pain running up the arm. He immediately took a drachm of eau de luce, and this dose was repeated every 
half hour, and the same remedy was applied externally as a lotion to the arm and forearm. At four o’clock 
in the morning of the 16th of October, the pain began to increase, and the arm to swell with great hardness 
and stiffness, and tumor in the axilla, with much inclination to vomit. He took twelve grains of Dr. James’s 
powder, which brought up a great quantity of bilious matter. He drank copiously of warm water, but no 
perspiration was induced. He appeared relieved for a short time. At eight o’clock in the morning the arm 
