EXPERIMENTS ON THE ACTION OF THE COBKA POISON. By J. Father, M.D., F.R.C.S.E., Surgeon, Bengal Army; Professor of Surgery in College of Bengal.

the Medical

Third series.

Experiment No- 1. 12-45 p. m.?A

fish, (ophioceplialus marulius,) about fourteen inches long, was bitten once near the tail by a large fat cobra at 12-50, and was put into water immediately.?1 p. m. Fish seems sluggish.?1-5 p. m. Jumped out of the jar of water.? 1-8. Fish active; plunging about in the jar.?1-14. Plunging; broke the glass jar. Put into another vessel.?1-16. Seems sluggish ; can be taken up by the tail.?1-22. Turning on his side; plunging; jumps out of the jar.?1-25. Exhibits convulsive movements ; lying on its side. 1-30.?Nearly dead.?1-40. Dead. Another fish of the same size, not bitten, but kept for the same period in a similar jar, is alive. Experiment No. 2. 22nd

April.?A dog

was

bitten

fasciatus at 1-13 in two places

on

by

a

full-grown bungurus

the inner side of the left such as is seen in cobra bite.

thigh.?1-16. No paralysis of leg Dog seems uneasy.?1-28. Dog seems unaffected.?1-36. Dog lying down; seems sluggish; nothing very striking in his appearance ; breathing perhaps rather hurried.?1-55. Sluggish; struggles and drags the leg a little.?1-56. Yomiting a quantity of bilious fluid. Snorting ; restless.?1-58. Seems very restless ; lies down ; is evidently nauseated, and tries to vomit.

m.?Respiration hurried and irregular, 112 in the m. Sluggish and nauseated ; breathing quick. ?2-30. Sluggish, but can be roused ; makes efforts to vomit; breathing slightly oppressed.?4 p. m. Same state. Dog died on 2 p.

minute.?2-15 p.

the afternoon of the 25th. Experiment No. 3. A young mungoose (herpestes malacconsis) was bitten two or three times by a full-grown cobra, at 1-24 p. m. on the 30th April, on the inside of the thigh, from which the hair was first removed. Blood was drawn by the bites.?1-27. Lies

stretched

out,

and

rigid

from convulsion.?1-29.

General

THE INDIAN MEDICAL GAZETTE.

124

convulsions, and twitchings of muscles.?1-30. Rigor mortis strongly marked.

Dead.?1-50.

Experiment No. 4. 22nd in the

April.?A ptjas mucosus (dhamin) mouth by a large cobra at 1-26 p.

was

bitten freely

m.?1-45.

Active as usual.?2-15 p. m. Snake Perfectly well.?4 p. m. Seems well.

affected.?2-30.

un-

well.

23rd.?Apparently

Experiment No. 5. A

dhamin

large

was

bitten three times on the

between the open jaws, color, between 12-57 and

once

by

full-grown cobra,

a

body, of

and

light

a

1 Snake p. m.?1-10 p. m. unaffected.?1-16. No change.?2-40. Snake unaffected.? 2-50Snake unaffected. The next day at noon he was perfectly well.

Experiment No. 6. 30th

cat was bitten

by the same cobra that bit the mungoose at 1-27 p. m.?1-30. Cat uneasy ; not paralysed.?1-33. Bestless; breathing hurried.?1-40. Cat lying down ; seems April.?A

muscular uneasy; Active when roused.

twitchings

and hurried

breathing.?1-55.

2-30. Appears rather distressed ; has bitten its tongue, and ties with mouth half open, and tongue protruded.?2-50. Is now fully under the influence of the poison. Lies on one side;

placed

on

over on

one

Experiment No 7. A

bitten

by a Bungarus fasciatus, about six feet long on the inner side of the left thigh, at 1-27 p. m.?1-29. Dog restless ; licking the wound ; respiration hurried, probably from excitement.?1-35. No apparent change ; no paralysis as in case of cobra bite.?1-50. Seems rather weak in the hind leg, but otherwise quite well and playful.?2-50. Dog seems well; lying down. The next day at noon the dog was quite well, and ate his food. He died a day or two later. dog

was

Experiment No. 8.

April.?A cat fasciatus in the thigh, 30th

removed at

was

bitten

by

a

half-grown Bungarus previously

from which the hair had been

1-48 p. m.?2-50.

This cat from the first

was

apparently unwell, keeping its mouth open, and its tongue protruded. It had an abscess in one cheek. Within the last hour there has been little change; the animal is perhaps rather more sluggish. The noose round the neck being rather tight, was somewhat slackened, and at 3-40 p. in. the cat was found to have escaped.** May ls?. The cat found dead. sluggish,

were

quite

well. Experiment No. 12.

A mungoose and a full-sized cobra were pnt into a large wire cage at 1 p. m. The snake struck at the mungoose, and they grappled with each other frequently, and apparently the mungoose must have been bitten, as the snake held on to it about the neck or head. At 1-15 p. in. there was no effect on the mungoose; both it and the snake were much excited and angry, the snake hissing violently.?2-30 p. m. No effect on the mungoose. The snake is bitten about the head, and shows the

bleeding wounds.?1-51. They are both occasionally darting at each other, but the mungoose jumps over the snake, and tries to avoid it. Next day at noon both were well ; the snake frequently struck at the mungoose, but did.not appear to injure it; both seemed very savage, but the mungoose would not bite the snake ; he jumped over it. There had been two cobras in the cage with the mungoose the night, both equally fierce, and striking each other and the mungoose ; but the latter was uninjured. He was bittea

during

once

by

the cobras rather

its

feet, drops with its belly on the ground, and side; constant twitchings of the limbs, and frequent violent efforts made to rise, but quite in vain. Heart's action feeble, 108.?3 p. m. Dead. The blood, examined twenty minutes after death, showed no perceptible change. when

then falls

and

Experiment No. 9. A mungoose was bitten in the inner side of the thigh by a large cobra at 1-44 p. m., and was put into a cage immediately at 1-48 ;

apparently not affected. No paralysis of leg; very active in trying to get out.?2 p. m. Mungoose eating vigorously Was quite well some raw meat; seems quite unaffected. next day. Experiment No. 10.

April.?A

cobra

was

bitten

by

a

large Bungarus

fasciatus

2-12 p. m. at a place where some of his scales had been first scraped off.?2-30. Seems quite well.?4 p. m. Seems well.? at

2ird ?Well. Experiment No. 11. A full-sized cobra bit another full-sized cobra in the mouth.

They

were

made to close their

mouths at 1-38

p.m.?Both

jaws respectively

in each other's

cobras were then put into

a

wire

severely

on

the head.

Experiment No. 13.

Wednesday, 27th May, 1868, I made the following experiments; the idea having been suggested by a letter addressed to the Editor of Engineering, March 20th, 1868, by Mr. W. Clarke, C.E., who, relating his experiments on poisonous snakes in India, in 1854, mentions the extraordinary effect that creosote had in destroying them, and suggesting its use, or that of analogous chemical compounds, in the treatment of snake-bites. The effect of an analogous chemical compound, carbolic acid, on the snake itself I have as yet only ascertained. The therapeutic value remains to be determined, though, in anticipation, I express my doubt as to its being more beneficial than anything else, unless applied early enough to decomjjose the poison before absorption into the nervous circulation ; and this we could seldom hope to effect. Iam quite satisfied that the application of carbolic acid, or perhaps even of coal tar, to the walls and timbers, and apertures by which their entry into a house could be effected, would have a most beneficial effect in keeping snakes at a On

distance. At 12-33

mouth of

produce

noon

I

put

a

few

drops

of carbolic acid into the

and

very vigorous cobra, and it seemed to almost immediate effect. The snake struggled

large

a

and closed the

violently,

went

rapidly into a state of convulsion, as evinced by a series of spasmodic peristaltic waves of the whole length of the body. In less than five minutes it was evidently powerless for evil, and unable to strike or even The conmove from the spot, but was frequently convulsed. vulsed movements continued getting fainter, and did not entirely cease for twenty minutes, when it was quite dead. This cobra was over four feet six inches in length, and peculiarly active aud vicious.

opened

cage ;

2nd

1868.

cage. They were fresh and vigorous ?1-42. Both snakes very active and angry in tlie cage.?2-50. Both snakes unaffected, occasionally striking at each other. The next day at noon they

Quite

unaffected.?1-58.

[Jura 1,

mouth,

Experiment No. 14. I

poured

a

few

drops

of carbolic acid

on

to the floor of

a

large wooden cage, with a wire front, in which there was a large The snake was not handled, and the bungarus fasciatus. could scarcely have got into the mouth, carbolic acid though it touched the head. The bungarus immediately withdrew his head from the spot where the acid fell, and became very much excited and convulsed, the tail being for a time quite rigid. It turned over on its back in about three minutes, and lay almost motionless for about five or six minutes more, during which slight convulsive movements occurred, as in the cobra, and in less than teu minutes it was quite dead. This snake was five

June 1, 1868.] feet

long,

ON SNAKE-POISON.?BY C. E. FRANCIS.

and very

powerful, sluggish

as

the

bungarus always

is, I believe, in the day time; but very active when roused. Life in this snake was much more rapidly extinguished, and by a smaller dose of the poison, than in the smaller cobra. As they lay stretched out side by side, convulsive twitchings were apparent in the cobra for some minutes after the bungarus was quite dead. This would indicate that the bungarus is much more susceptible than the cobra, for it was apparently destroyed by the vapour, or, at all events, by the very small quantity that might have trickled down from the head into After death, the mucous membrane of the mouth natural ; whereas in the cobra that had drops placed in the mouth, these had completely whitened the mucous membrane, and coagulated the poison which had exuded from the fangs. the mouth. was

I hope analogous bite

on

to

test

chemical

some

the

merits of carbolic

compounds

future occasion.

as

acid

therapeutic agents

and

other

in snake-

In the meantime, its use,

as a

preventive against the entry of snakes into houses and other places where they may prove dangerous, or as a means of getting rid of them where they have taken possession, is suggested, for there can be no doubt that the drug is most deadly and disagreeable to the reptiles.

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Experiments on the Action of the Cobra Poison.

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