On the action of cobra poison / by Charles R. Francis.

  • Francis, C. R. (Charles Richard), 1821-1901
Date:
[1868]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the action of cobra poison / by Charles R. Francis. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    probably be the most satisfactory animal to manipulate with. The fangs of a genuine, well-tested, cobra should be forced into some fleshy hairless point,—the inner part of the thigh will be as good a spot as any,—and the pups should shortly afterwards be allowed to suck from the mother. If any one of the pups should die with symptoms of snake-poisoning, the evidence will be clear that the poisonous principle has passed from the mother to the young through the medium of the milk. The experiment is worth making, as, if such a result should ensue, much light will be thrown upon the pathology of certain diseases which are transmissible from the parent to the offspring. I have recently been made acquainted with two apparently incredible cases, which have led to the foregoing remarks. It is stated by two very intelligent native assistants in an office, whose word I have no reason whatever to doubt, that a Hindoo mother was sleeping at night on a native bed (which was slightly raised from the ground) with her two children, one being an infant at the breast. In the course of the night the elder child called out that she had been bitten by a snake ; and presently, in the con- fusion which ensued, the mother was bitten likewise on one of her hands. Both died under the influence of the poison, which was that of a cobra. And the infant, whom the mother had taken to her breast to pacify, (for it had begun to cry), died also with symptoms of poisoning. A source of fallacy exists in tlie possibility of the infant having been bitten too ; but my infor- mant assures me that it was not. The other case is that of a calf which died after sucking milk from its mother, who had been recently bitten by a snake. Here again we have the same source of fallacy; the probability being indeed greater, in this case, that hath mother and young were bitten. The explanation given by my informant is this : tlie snake had (as is alleged to be the custom of such snakes) entwined itself round one of the
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