PREFACE 
Few branches of the Natural Elistory of the East Indies, have been less cultivated in the 
Company’s establishments abroad, than that of Serpents. It must be acknowledged, that it offers 
no attractive allurements; and that those who, from other avocations, can only spare transient 
attention to subjects of Natural Elistory, are more likely to prefer objects less disgusting, and 
experiments accompanied with less cruelty, and personal danger. Even the eager and resolute 
Naturalist has to contend with many difficulties in this path of research. He cannot, at once, 
divest himself of the abhorrence, next to innate, of these reptiles; nor can he soon acquire a dex¬ 
terity in handling them, with that calmness requisite for his own safety. The search for plants, 
for birds, or even insects, is comparatively pastime, or pleasurable occupation; but in the ac¬ 
tual pursuit of the disgusting race of serpents, he stands in need of assistants who are not, at all 
times, to be procured; and if lie relies solely on the diligence of such as he may employ, he 
will find himself exposed to the chagrin of incessant disappointment. Nor is this all: to a 
stranger not acquainted with the languages of Hindostan, the difficulty of obtaining local in¬ 
formation, is often increased by the stupidity of menial interpreters; the curiosity, at the same 
time, of the Gentoos, extends little beyond the limits of their ordinary concerns; they are na¬ 
turally credulous; and have a strong propensity to the marvellous. 
That less ardent, or mere casual curiosity, should have been damped amid so many discou¬ 
ragements, will not appear surprising; nor that their influence should have extended even to 
the province of the medical gentlemen abroad, to which researches into physiology more pecu¬ 
liarly belong. The effect of such influence, however, will hardly be doubted, when, after the 
opportunities of observation in a course of two Centuries, the medical history of symptoms 
consequent to the bite of serpents, remains in a state not less defective, than the natural history 
of the reptiles themselves. 
Yet, it is not to be supposed that a subject of such interesting importance in that country, 
has been altogether neglected. There are many of the gentlemen long resident abroad, who re¬ 
collect (however imperfectly,) circumstances attending accidents, which happened within their 
own knowledge; and I heard, when in India, of several who had formerly dedicated some lei¬ 
sure hours to experiments on serpents. But it is to be lamented that the scattered information 
has never been collected; and that the result of experiments, together with accidental disco¬ 
veries, have not been recorded in a manner to preserve them for the benefit of posterity. 
When allowance is made for those who return to their native country, and for those who find 
their graves in India, the European inhabitants of the British settlements may be said to undergo 
a total change once in twenty-five years: that is, very few, at the termination of such a period, 
shall be found remaining in the country, who lived in it at the beginning. The change, it is true, 
though completed periodically, is produced gradually; and other sorts of knowledge, as well as 
commercial, may be maintained by oral communication: but Natural History is, at best, very 
imperfectly transmitted by tradition. What finds its way from one era to another, usually arrives 
encumbered with accumulated errors; while corrections, or discoveries, if not committed to 
writing, perish with the individuals by whom they were made: hence each era has, as it were, 
to set out anew, deriving little, if any, advantage from the experience of preceding times. 
This, and similar considerations, first suggested the idea of collecting and describing the 
serpents found on the coast of Coromandel. 
The terror occasioned by those numerous reptiles, is immoderately aggravated by the indis¬ 
criminate apprehension of all being poisonous. To distinguish, therefore, those that are really 
so, from such (by far the greater number,) as are harmless, becomes a matter next in import¬ 
ance to the discovery of a remedy against their poison. 
When it is determined whether the reptile be poisonous or innocuous, the next requisite is, 
that it should be so defined, as to obviate the chance of being confounded with any other 
species, under whatsoever name that species may be known in different places; and the most 
