On the nature of snake-poison / [Sir Joseph Fayrer].

  • Fayrer, Joseph, Sir, 1824-1907.
Date:
[1884]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the nature of snake-poison / [Sir Joseph Fayrer]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    On the Nature of Snake-Poison. The communication which I have the honour of making to you this evening is in fulfilment of a promise made last April, after the discussion of a paper on a similar subject by Dr. Badaloni of Nocera, which excited considerable interest and some criticism with regard to the purely scien- tific aspect of snake-poisoning, its treatment, and its relation to the vital statistics of countries in which venomous snakes are more numerous than in our own (in this respect) more highly favoured one. I purpose to describe the nature and the mode of action of snake-poison on living creatures ; and, being most fami- liar with the Ophidia of India, I shall select some illustra- tions from that source, especially as it affords typical examples of snakes which are endowed with this terrible power of destroying life. Let me ask your attention to some points in the structure of the apparatus which is concerned with the elaboration and inoculation of the poison which it is the purpose of this paper to describe. The order Ophidia has three subdivisions : 1. Ophidii Colubriformes (innocent). 2. Ophidii Colubriformes Venenosi. 3. Ophidii Viperiformes. The two latter are all poisonous—they are the Thanato- phidia, and well merit this name in India, where they des- troy, probably, 20,000 human beings annually. The general anatomical structure and distinctive charac- ters of a snake are well known, but I will ask you to notice certain differences between: 1. An innocuous and a poisonous snake. 2. Between a poisonous colubrine and a viperine snake. The crania drawings and dissections before you illustrate these differences. Snakes are provided with sharp re-curved teeth, which are firmly fixed in the maxillary palatine, and pterygoid bones ; by the form and arrangement of these teeth, poisonous may be distinguished from innocent snakes. The harmless snake has two complete rows of ungrooved