OF INDIAN SERPENTS. 
61 
the head and the fore legs. Being raised up, he walked a few paces without any apparent lameness. At the 
end of twenty minutes, the tremors increased, and the thigh was contracted. At the end of fifty-five minutes, 
the tremors became more universal, and the dog frequently stretched the neck, his mouth pointing upwards, 
as if gasping for breath ; but he all along neither moaned, nor howled. During the second hour, he lay 
along on one side, either in a torpid state, or at intervals, writhing his limbs : and sometimes suffered a sub- 
sultus tendinum. After the third hour, he grew better, and soon recovered. 
Experiment V.-A chicken bitten in the thigh, soon after the dog, stood nearly a minute as if stupified, 
then couched, and being put on its legs, walked a little way, but soon couched again. After five minutes, 
putting the point of its beak to the ground, it continued for two minutes, rocking the head incessantly 
sidewise: after which relapsing into a torpid state, it expired without more convulsion, in twenty-seven 
minutes from the bite. 
Experiment VI.-After allowing the snake to rest one hour, a second chicken was bitten as in the last 
experiment: a little blood appeared on the thigh, but it was doubtful whether the fangs had acted. The chicken 
remained well. 
Experiment VII.-A third chicken was bitten immediately after the second. The fangs visibly acted ; 
but the chicken was not infected. 
Experiment VIII. October 22,1788.-Two days after the three foregoing experiments, the same dog which 
had escaped before, (See Exp. IV.) was bitten in both thighs. The legs were almost immediately affected, 
and within five minutes, the legs and breast were, as before, seized with tremors. The dog couched, but soon 
rose again ; the trembling continued, attended with a slighter degree of stupor than the day before ; and in 
the course of the first hour, the muscles of the wounded thigh were at times tremulous. The tremors de¬ 
creased visibly in the second hour, the dog rose of himself, and stood firmly on his legs ; after another hour, 
he had pretty well recovered. 
Observations. -As the fangs acted on each thigh, and the dog was more slightly infected than in the 
former experiment, it was probable, though the snake appeared very alert, that the power of the poison must 
have been diminished. In order to try this, 
Experiment IX.-A chicken was bitten in the thigh, and immediately showed signs of poison; but, 
after continuing two hours in a state of stupefaction, it recovered. 
Experiment X.-After an interval of half an hour, a pigeon was bitten in the thigh. At first it escaped 
to a rafter in the room, whither being pursued, it got out, and rested on the top of a rock, at a little distance. 
It soon tumbled down from this last refuge, and was brought back; in about fifteen minutes from the bite. 
The bird seemed stupified, couched on the belly, and without convulsions, expired in that posture, three 
minutes after. 
Experiment XI.-When the pigeon in the above experiment fled, a second was immediately bitten; 
and though the snake had bitten three times before, in the same forenoon, the symptoms of poison were 
instantly visible. After fourteen minutes, convulsions supervened, which alternated with stupor; and in 
forty-five minutes the bird expired; the convulsions having ceased for ten minutes before death. 
The appearances about the wound, were found, upon dissection, the same as usual. 
Observations.- From the foregoing experiments, the poison of the Bodroo Pam appears to be less 
deleterious, and slower in its operation, than those of the Cobra de Capello and the Katuka Rekula Poda: the 
symptoms attending it appear also to be in some respects different. 
The first chicken was convulsed in an extraordinary manner, but lived eight minutes; the others were 
slightly convulsed, and lingered longer ; some escaped altogether; but all suffered some degree of stupor. The 
dog and the pig escaped death, though both suffered considerably : especially the dog in Exp. IV. In Exp. 
VIII. the strength of the poison may be supposed to have been impaired by captivity and fasting; but its 
fatal effects on the pigeons, Exp. X. and XI. showed that it was not destroyed. 
