134 
THE THANATOPHIDIA OF INDIA. 
on the ground. 12.3S.—Lying down ; starts when roused by 
sound or touch. 12.40.—Lying on its side, paralysed; head 
fallen over. 12.46.—Muscular twitchings. 12.56.-—Still alive ; 
lies motionless, except for occasional convulsive twitchings. 
12.57.—Dead—in twenty-nine minutes. 
Blood removed from the body formed a firm coagulum soon 
after death. 
Experiment No. 3. 
Half a drop of Cobra poison mixed with eight parts of water, 
injected into a Fowl’s thigh at 12.33 p.m. The poison is freshly 
taken from the Cobra; the Fowl is rather smaller than the one 
in the last experiment. 12.36. — Limps on injected leg. 
12.40.—Crouched. 12.42.—Head drooping, resting on its 
beak. 12.45. — Crouching ; eyes closed; head nodding. 
12.48.—Point of beak resting on the ground. 12.54.—Quite 
paralysed. 12.50.—Convulsive movements ; purged. 12.59.— 
Quite paralysed. 1 p.m. —Convulsive movements, springing form 
the ground. 1 . 6 .— Dead—in thirty-three minutes. 
The object of these two experiments was to test the relative 
power of the two poisons by taking the same quantity of each, 
and using it on animals of about the same size. 
This Fowl poisoned by the Cobra was rather smaller than 
that poisoned by the Krait, and yet it lived longest after being 
inoculated; so far the Krait’s poison would appear to be the 
more active of the two. It would be almost impossible to judge 
from one experiment, where there are so many causes that may 
interfere to disturb the natural results. Yet it is sufficient to 
prove that the poison of the Krait is very similar in its deadly 
action to that of the Cobra. 
Experiment No. 4. 
A Cobra (“ Koyah Gokurrah”), three feet ten inches long, 
was severely bitten in the hood by a “ Tentuliah Keautiah” 
(Cobra), five feet ten inches long, and very vigorous and powerful, 
at 12.45. The bite was a very determined one, and the poison 
effused profuse. 
August 20th.—No evil results, the Cobra is unaffected (after 
seven days). 
Experiment No. 5. 
A small Frog was bitten by the large Krait, which must have 
been much exhausted by repeated biting, at 1.8 p.m. The Frog 
was dead at 1.14, or in six minutes. 
August 20 th, 1870. 
Present, Drs. Fayrer and Ewart. 
Experiment No. 6. 
A Bungarus fasciatus, sixty-eight inches long and five inches 
in girth, was made to bite a middle-sized but full-grown Pariah 
Dog on the thigh at 12.45. lie closed his jaws twice or thrice, 
but the bites were doubtful. 1.35.—Not affected. 1.55. Not 
affected, the fangs had evidently not penetrated. Bitten again 
by the same snake. 2 p.m. —Is evidently affected; sits down, 
is sluggish. 2.10.—Very sluggish. The Dog after this began 
slowly to recover ; on the following day was quite well. 
Experiment No. 7. 
A young and very lively Spectacled Cobra, fourteen inches 
long, was bitten in the muscular part of its body by a Krait, 
forty-eight inches long, at 12.50. The Krait is the one that 
came from Delhi, and it has not bitten for some days. At 1 p.m. 
the Cobra was very sluggish; at 1.8 so sluggish that it moves 
with difficulty, and can be easily handled; it makes no effort 
at resistance. 1.20.—Apparently dying, movements scarcely 
perceptible. 1.22.—Dead. 
There can be no doubt, I think, that this young snake suc¬ 
cumbed to the poison of the Krait, and this settles the question 
of the susceptibility of one poisonous snake to the venom of 
another. But in this case the Krait was very large, and the 
Cobra very small. I doubt whether a Cobra of equal size would 
have died. 
Experiment No. 8. 
A Krait, about thirty inches in length, was bitten by the 
same Krait that killed the Cobra in last experiment, at 1.22 p.m. 
2.4.—Not affected. No apparent effects on the following day. 
August 23rd.-—No effect. 
Experiment No. 9. 
A full-grown Fowl was bitten in the thigh by the same 
Bungarus fasciatus that bit the Dog in Experiment No, 1 , at 
1.47 p.m. 1.50.—Affected; drooping. 1.55.—Convulsive 
movements ; tail twisted to one side; crouches ; head nodding. 
1.58.—Fallen over, paralysed. 2.4.—Lies paralysed; reflex 
action still marked ; a fly sitting on the eyelid; it starts. No 
convulsions. 2.5.—Dead—in eighteen minutes. 
The blood coagulated firmly immediately after death. The 
bitten part was swollen and discoloured. 
Experiment No. 10. 
A nearly full-grown Mongoose (. Herpestes ) was put into a 
large cage with a very large and vigorous Cobra (“ Tentuliah 
Keautiah”) nearly six feet long. The snake immediately 
assumed the offensive attitude in one corner of the cage, whilst 
the Mongoose, evidently terrified, shrunk into the other corner. 
When roused and pushed towards the Cobra, the latter struck 
at the Mongoose, who returned the attack, and they were both 
scratched about the nose, for both were bleeding. They were 
in the cage for nearly an hour, each seeming very anxious to 
avoid the other. The Cobra always on the defensive, with his 
hood erect, and his head raised twenty inches from the ground. 
Whenever brought near each other the Cobra struck, and the 
Mongoose snapped; the result in each case being a bleeding 
wound about the face or mouth. This Cobra’s mouth, which 
he kept open, was red with blood. Both seemed very tired, but 
the Mongoose, though severely scratched, showed no symptoms 
of poisoning. 
They were taken out, and the Cobra was made to close his 
jaws on the Mongoose’s thigh at 1.20 p.m. This was followed 
by no immediate effect; they were returned to the cage, and 
behaved exactly as they had done before. The Cobra’s poison 
had most probably been exhausted in its furious assaults. 
They were again taken out of the cage, and as the Mongoose 
was not affected, he was bitten again on the thigh by a much 
smaller Cobra, after which they were put into the cage together. 
In this case the action of the Mongoose was quite different, he 
was evidently not, as he had been of the larger Cobra, afraid 
of this one. The Cobra assumed the defensive attitude at once, 
and as the Mongoose ran at him struck. The Mongoose 
gripped him in several places along the body, and finally caught 
him by the head, biting him severely about the mouth, in doing 
which the poison fangs of the snake must have over and over 
again wounded the Mongoose’s mouth, for the upper jaw of 
the snake was repeatedly in the Mongoose’s mouth, and both 
were streaming with blood. The Cobra was soon hors de combat 
and was removed from the cage—not dead, but very severely 
hurt. The Mongoose had not succeeded in biting into the brain, 
but only in front of it. The Cobra, however, was helpless. 
The Mongoose was by this time, 1.45, under the influence 
q£ tp 0 poison, which no doubt was inflicted by the last Cobra 
which bit him on the thigh, and when the Mongoose took the 
Cobra’s jaw in his mouth. The bitten leg became paralysed, 
and by degrees he became more and more sluggish, but did not 
die till 8.5 p.m. After death the blood coagulated firmly. 
The result of this experiment was somewhat different to that 
on a former occasion. Then the Mongoose also was not affected 
durino- his fight with the Cobra, but succumbed immediately 
afterwards when bitten on the thigh. I imagine the fangs must 
have penetrated a large vein, for death occurred almost instantly. 
