INTRODUCTION. 
Of forty-three Serpents, examined and described in the present collection, seven only 
were found furnished with poisonous organs. An account of the effects of the poisons of 
■i " " i, h 
four of these, viz. the Gedi Paragoodoo, No. I.; the Cobra de Capello, No. V.; the Katuka 
Rekula Poda, No. VII.; and the Bodroo Pam, No. IX.; is given separately, in the four fol¬ 
lowing Sections. In regard to two others, viz. No. III. and No. VIII. the few experiments 
made on them have been subjoined to the respective descriptions. On the venomous Boa, 
No. XI. having only seen the dead subject, there was no opportunity of making trials. 
The experiments related in the other Sections, chiefly respect the poisons of the Cobra de 
Capello, and the Katuka Rekula Poda, as subjects procurable with less difficulty, and then- 
poisons, in quality, being the most highly deleterious. 
Upon comparing the effects of the poisons of five East Indian serpents on brute animals, 
with those produced by the poisons of the rattle snake, and the European viper, it may in 
general be remarked, that they all produce morbid symptoms nearly similar, however much 
they may differ in the degree of their deleterious power, or in the rapidity of its operation. 
The bite of a rattle snake, in England, killed a dog in two minutes: the bite of the most per¬ 
nicious snakes mentioned in the following Sections, was never observed to kill a dog in 
less than twenty-seven minutes. 
That the poison of serpents must have precisely the same effect on man, as on brute ani¬ 
mals, would be rather a rash assumption ; at the same time it will not be disputed, that atten¬ 
tive observation of their operation on brutes, may suggest important hints, and contribute to 
throw light on the mode of their operation on man. 
It need hardly be remarked, that a variety of experiments, inadmissible in the human 
species, maybe made on such animals as can, at all times, be readily infected, either artifi¬ 
cially, or by the bite of the living reptile; and that such experiments, judiciously con¬ 
ducted, while they ascertain (in respect to these animals) the natural or undisturbed progress 
of the disease, as well as the effects of remedies, where remedies were applied, must afford 
many important inferences, which cautiously, but with great probability, may be extended 
to the human subject. 
The following Experiments are by no means offered as completely satisfactory. Some of 
them serve only to suggest hints for further inquiry; and others require to be repeated, mul¬ 
tiplied, or varied, before general conclusions can safely be established. 
