512 poisons: their effects and detection. [§§670,671. 
of Surinam, one of the largest venomous snakes ; the Copper-head, 
also known under the name of Chunk-head ; Deaf Adder and Pilot 
Snake ( Trigonocephalus contortus) ; various species of Bothrops in the 
Brazils. There is also a species of Trimeresurus in one of the Japanese 
islands, which appears to be specially aggressive, and kills some 48-70 
hours after the bite. 
The poisons of these snakes appear to be different from that of the 
cobra, and more analogous to the poison of the true vipers. 
§ 670. Duboia Russellii. —The Duboia Russellii or Bussell’s viper is 
one of the best known and most deadly of the Indian vipers. The 
poison of the viper differs from that of the cobra in causing greater 
local effect; it also coagulates the blood instead of making ifc more fluid. 
Viper poison apparently digests fibrin ; it is not very stable, as a heat 
of about 80°-85° destroys it. The effects of the poison of this viper 
are also different from those of cobra venom. The action commences by 
violent general convulsions, which are often at once fatal, or may be 
followed by rapid paralysis and death ; or these symptoms, again, may 
be recovered from, and death follow at a later period. The convulsions 
do not depend on asphyxia, and with a small dose may be absent. The 
paralysis is general, and may precede for some time the extinction of 
the respiration ; the pupils are widely dilated, there are bloody dis¬ 
charges, and the urine is albuminous. Should the victim survive the 
first effects, then blood-poisoning may follow, and a dangerous illness 
result, often attended with copious haemorrhages. A striking example 
of this course is recorded in the Indian Med. Gaz., June 1, 1872. 
A Mahommedan, aged 40, was bitten on the finger by Bussell’s viper ; 
the bitten part was soon after excised, and stimulants given. The hand 
and arm became much swollen, and on the same day he passed blood by 
the rectum, and also bloody urine. The next day he was sick, and still 
passing blood from all the channels ; in this state he remained eight days, 
losing blood constantly, and died on the ninth day. Nothing definite is 
known of the chemical composition of the poison ; it is probably qualita¬ 
tively identical with “ viperin.” 
§ 671. The Poison of the Common Viper. —The common viper still 
abounds in certain parts of Great Britain, as, for example, on Dartmoor. 
The venom was analysed in a partial manner by Valentin. In 1843 
Prince Lucien Bonaparte separated a gummy varnish, inodorous, 
glittering, and transparent, which he called echidnin or viperin ; it was 
a neutral nitrogenous body without taste, it arrested the coagulation of 
the blood, and, injected into animals, produced all the effects of the 
bite of the viper. Phisalix and G. Bertrand have studied the symptoms 
produced in small animals after injection. A guinea-pig, weighing 
500 grms., was killed by 0*3 grm. of the dried venom dissolved in 5000 
parts of saline water; the symptoms were nausea, quickly passing 
