60 
The Philippine Journal of Science 
1920 
population of 10,000,000. The number of deaths by years oc- 
curred as follows : 
Year. 
Deaths. 
1913 
78 
1914 
163 
1915 
162 
1916 
143 
Year. Deaths. 
1917 133 
1918 168 
Total 847 
This snake, known by the native names of alupong and alimu- 
ranin, belongs to the genus Naja and was until recently con- 
sidered to be identical with the species Naja caeca and N. sputa- 
trix; but investigations of Taylor, of the Bureau of Science, 
showed that such classification was erroneous because of the 
differences in characters, such as color, and number and distri- 
bution of scales, which exist in the Philippine species as com- 
pared with other members of the family. For this reason the 
Philippine cobra was classified by him as a distinct subspecies, 
Naja naja philippinensis. 
COLLECTING COBRA VENOM 
The poison wa's obtained from live ansesthetized cobras by 
pressing the glands with the fingers, the venom being allowed 
to run down the fang into sterile vials. The fresh poison is 
a thick, sirupy, colorless liquid of opalescent aspect. When 
desiccated in vacuo it forms small yellowish flakes. The amount 
of poison which we obtained from an adult Naja naja, philip- 
pinensis at any one time weighed approximately 0.052 gram 
after drying. 
BIOLOGIC PROPERTIES OF PHILIPPINE COBRA VENOM 
1. TOXICITY 
The minimum lethal dose of the venom has been ascertained 
for the following animals: Guinea pigs, rabbits, monkeys, and 
frogs. Of these the most susceptible is the monkey, and the 
most resistant is the frog. 
The minimum lethal dose for a guinea pig in twenty-four 
hours after subcutaneous injection is 0.0002 gram per kilogram 
of body weight, while that for a rabbit is 0.0003 gram; for a 
monkey, 0.00008 gram ; and for a frog, 0.0005 gram. 
Calmette found the minimum lethal dose of the venom of 
Naja tripudians for guinea pigs, when administered subcuta- 
neously, to be 0.0004 gram per kilogram of body weight, and 
Noguchi found it to be 0.0005 gram. 
When injected per venam in rabbits it was found by Calmette 
to be 0.0005 gram per kilogram of body weight; and by Lamb, 
