Page:AJWall Indian Snake Poisons.djvu/30

15 In birds the symptoms are usually very regular in their occurrence. There is the same appearance of local pain. The bird then generally seems drowsy, from its being unable to keep the eyes open, the head droops as if the neck were unable to support it, but the bird constantly recovers itself with a jerk. It at last sinks down to the ground, ultimately falling over on its side, unable to raise either its head or itself. The pupils are, as a rule, somewhat contracted, the eye often watering. The respirations finally become exceedingly slow, and then cease, convulsions and death following. It sometimes happens, as in mammals, that the respiratory centre is almost simultaneously stimulated and paralysed, the bird dying at once.

In the amphibia, there can scarcely be said to be any symptoms of cobra-poisoning; the frog, for instance, only becomes more and more sluggish and paralysed, and is at last found to be dead.

It will be necessary to consider some of the more important conditions in detail, after having noticed the appearances to be found after death.

Rigor mortis generally comeson about the usual time and is as well marked as it is in death from ordinary causes. The blood in man is fluid, as a rule, and in the