The venomous snakes of India / J. Fayrer.

  • Fayrer, Joseph, Sir, 1824-1907.
Date:
[1889]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The venomous snakes of India / J. Fayrer. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    ^< A, < * — Ct^iu>U| THE VENOMOUS SNAKES OF INDIA. In a previous article an account was given of the carnivora and other wild beasts which are destructive to life in British India; of the mortality caused by them in those provinces which have fur- nished statistical records of the death-rates, of the rewards paid by Government for the destruction of the noxious creatures, and of the numbers destroyed, with a brief notice of the measures in force for abating the evil. It was shown that the average loss of life caused by wild animals and venomous snakes combined has for eight years been at the rate of 22,620 human beings and 53,277 head of cattle annually, and that it has continued at about the same rate, with slight fluctuations, up to the present date, notwithstanding such measures as may have been resorted to for its prevention. It was also shown that of these deaths those of 2,740 human beings and 51,180 head of cattle and other domestic animals were due to wild animals alone, whilst the much larger number of 19,880 deaths of human beings, and the smaller of 2,100 of cattle were ascribed to venomous snakes of different kinds. The smallest numbers killed by wild beasts and snakes combined, recorded in the eight years cited, were in 1881, when 21,427 human beings and 43,669 cattle were killed; the largest figures were in 1886, when 24,841 men, and in 1887, when 63,737 cattle were killed. In this paper I propose to describe the reptiles which cause these deaths, to give some account of the circumstances under which they exert their lethal power, to notice the measures in operation for preventing the evil, and to make a brief reference to the nature and physiological action of the virus which is so fatal. The provinces referred to represent, roughly, about five-eighths of the peninsula, and the population about 199,000,000, or seven- ninths of a total population of 256,000,000; both are the same as those referred to in the former paper. The thirteen groups of native states forming Feudatory India, with the French and Portu- guese possessions, having a population of 57,000,000, are excluded from the above calculations. In describing the venomous snakes of India I shall dwell at any length on those only which are most destructive to life, e.g. the Naja or Cobra, the Ophiophagus or Hamadryad, the Bungarus or Krait, the 3e2