(brought forward whenever it is required, but never without necessity, or for the mere purpose of display), enlivened by a lively (but not flippant or jocose) style, and by just and healthy sentiments. All his books are thoroughly trustworthy, and though few writings are less in need of correction than his, it adds to our confidence in his conscientious accuracy when we find him not ashamed to give a list of" Errata and Addenda.” Of particular portions of the work it would be out of place here to speak at length, but we may say that Englishmen will be pleased to observe that so competent a judge does full justice to the merits of our countrymen, Harvey and Sydenham. The history of the circulation of the blood especially is a subject in which the Professor's intimate acquaintance with the opinions of the older anatomists and physiologists enables him to estimate at their true value the attempts still occasionally made to deprive Harvey of the glory of his discovery.

He gives a "Chronological Table of the Alexandrian Physicians, with a Summary of their Works," in some respects better and more complete than any previously existing, which with the accompanying "Notes Justificatives " he very properly calls an "Appendix" to Chapter VII. Another very valuable "Appendix" contains a "Study on the Different Classifications of the Periods of Medical History," with (incidentally) a critical judgment on the writers. In making this examination, the Professor has of course expressed his opinion of the different works passed in review with considerable freedom, but he does not seem to us (so far as we have observed) to have gone beyond the fair limits of criticism, or to have forgotten the excellent sentence of Mead (Preface to Medical Precepts and Cautions '), with which he closes his own preface, and which it would be a good thing if other medical writers (including reviewers) would more constantly bear in mind:-"The very nature of my design compelled me to take notice of the errors of other physicians; but have been very careful throughout the work to do it with the same equity with which I would desire to have my own faults corrected." The Professor easily discovers the defects in the classifications of his predecessors, but perhaps he has not been so successful in devising one which is quite free from objections, when proposing the eight epochs (p. 25, &c.) into which he has divided his subject, and which are not in each case very distinctly marked out. The first he calls " theurgic or empiric (perhaps not very well chosen names), by which he appears to mean the primitive medicine in the hands of priests, &c., and such as is shown in the hymns of the Hindoos in the 'Rig Véda.' The second and third he joins together (p. 79), and they carry us to Hippocrates (inclusive); the fourth compre

hends the Alexandrian school, with Herophilus, Erasistratus, &c.; the fifth includes Galen; the sixth extends to the fifteenth century; the seventh ends with the publication of the first edition of Harvey's work, ' De Motu Cordis et Sanguinis,' in 1628; and the eighth and last continues at the present time. This bare enumeration of the Professor's eight epochs, though without giving the reasons for his classification, may be enough to let our readers see that the classificatiou may (like most similar arrangements) be considered as more or less arbitrary, and that the number of the classes might be either increased or diminished with equal plausibility.

In taking leave of the Professor, we beg to offer him our best thanks for his most valuable and interesting book, our sincere congratulations on the well merited professorship, and our hearty good wishes that he may soon be so far restored to health and strength as to be fit to resume the duties of his office, which probably no one in Europe would be able to perform so efficiently as himself.

XII.-Fayrer's Poisonous Serpents of India.1

THE subject of snake-poisoning has recently attracted very considerable attention. Much has been drawn to it by the observations made by Professor Halford, of the Melbourne University, on the effects of the injection of liquor ammoniæ in poisoning by the Australian snakes, and on the microscopic changes which he believed he observed in the blood of animals killed by their bite. The costly and magnificent work before us, although it in no respect confirms Professor Halford's observations, at least, in as far as they were expected to apply to the Indian snakes, is a very valuable fruit of the attention which has been called to the subject by the writings of the Melbourne Professor. In it Professor Fayrer has given us, first, a good zoological account of the Indian Thanatophidia, in the descriptions and definitions following Günther and other authors of repute, but supplementing their accounts with many original facts and observations of great interest; secondly, some valuable statistical information proving the great amount of mortality from snake-bite in the State of Bengal; thirdly, a treatise on the treatment of snake-bite based on the records of many

1 The Thanatophidia of India, being a Description of the Venomous Snakes of the Indian Peninsula, with an Account of the Influence of their Poison on Life; and a Series of Experiments. By J. FAYREE, M.D., C.SI., F.R.S.E. Fol., p. 156. London, 1872.

cases and careful experiments; fourthly, a large collection of cases of snake-bite from the reports of civil and military medical officers; and, lastly, twenty-nine series of experiments; most of them conducted by himself, and a few by Mr. Richards, of Bancoorah, and Mr. Stewart, of Poorie; made with various Indian species of poisonous snakes upon all sorts of animals, which form, we think, one of the most remarkable investigations upon a subject of the highest scientific and practical importance ever made in any age or country. With some of the results of his observations we shall now endeavour to make our readers acquainted.

The first section of the work is occupied with anatomical and zoological descriptions. The most important and dreaded of the Indian snakes is the cobra, Naja tripudians. Dr. Fayrer gives us some very valuable information respecting the varieties of cobra, which are numerous, and which have been previously overlooked by writers on Indian ophiology. The natives are familiar with these varieties, which are distinguished by native names derived generally from their colour. The great distinction made by the snake-catchers of Bengal is between the cobras with the spectacles on the hood, or "gokurrahs," and those with one ocellus or other mark on the hood, named "keautiahs." These the natives regard as distinct from each other, as the krait or Bungarus cæruleus is from the sankni or Bungarus fasciatus.

"The gokurrah, they say, is essentially a snake of the town or city. The keautiah is of the fields and jungle. The gokurrah is slower to kill, as its poison is thicker though most deadly. The Keautiah's poison is thinner, and takes effect sooner, though it is not more fatal than that of the gokurrah. Both, they say, incubate, and the snake-man informs me that, over and over again, he has dug them out of holes sitting on their eggs. The gokurrah takes to the water reluctantly; the keautiah freely, and will remain for a considerable period under water. The hood of the keautiah is smaller relatively than that of the gokurrah, and the body is more attenuated; it is more slender and active than the gokurrah. The varieties of both eat about every sixth day; they deposit their eggs once in the year, and that in the rainy season. The keautiah is often found during the rainy season in the huts of the villages, where it has been driven to take shelter by inundation. It is as unusual to find a keautiah, though, in the ruins or débris of an old building, as it is to find a gokurrah in the open country. The snake-catchers here say that they believe that whereas the gokurrah is found all over Hindostan, the keautiah is, if not confined to Bengal, rare in the north-west, and other parts of India. This, however, is by no means certain, and requires confirmation." P. 7.

Amongst the magnificent coloured plates, from drawings done by native artists in the Government School of Art which alone would make the work of great value to the naturalist, are delineations of ten of the native varieties of cobra.

Another hooded snake belonging to the same family as the cobra, but generically distinct, is the Ophiophagus elaps or hamadryad, the sunkerchor of Bengal. It is, perhaps, the largest venomous snake, growing to the length of twelve or fourteen feet, and is very powerful and aggressive. Its poison is terribly potent, although not more potent, judging from Dr. Fayrer's experiments, than that of the cobra. Its pre-eminence in size, amongst Thanatophidia, is disputed by the bushranger, or curucucu, of British Guiana, a viperine snake which grows to fourteen feet. The ophiophagus, as its name denotes, lives on snakes. The snake-catchers occasionally have them, but they are difficult and dangerous to handle before their fangs are removed. Dr. Fayrer gives an account of several living specimens with which he performed his experiments. The first one was brought to him by some snake-men, but its fangs had long been extracted. He describes it as very much under the control of the snake-man who exhibited it. It would sit up, erecting its hood, and following the motions of the hand like a cobra.

"On two different occasions it ate snakes in my presence, two specimens of Passerita mycterizans, that had been killed by a cobra. The snake-man put the head of the Passerita into the hamadryad's mouth, and in about a quarter of an hour it gradually swallowed it. During the process it moved slowly about with the head, neck, and hood dilated, and it looked very odd with the smaller snake hanging out of its mouth. The fangs had been, as I have said, extracted, but on pressing the poison gland a deep yellow-coloured viscid fluid exuded. I collected a few drops of this and inoculated a drop of it into the thigh of a fowl; the bird sickened and died in about three hours." Pp. 9-10.

The hamadryad is terribly aggressive. If disturbed it will give chase and pursue over hill and dale. Dr. Mason, in his work on Burmah, gives an account of a man who was pursued by one of these serpents which swam across a river after him. He luckily bethought himself of his turban, and in a moment dashed it upon the serpent, which darted upon it like lightning, and for some moments wreaked its vengeance in furious bites; after which it returned quietly to its former haunts.

The krait or Bungarus cæruleus is a snake which is deservedly dreaded in India. It is common, and is, next to the cobra, most destructive to human life. It is more fatal than its congener and relative the Bungarus fasciatus or sankni. Like the cobra it often gets into buildings and insinuates itself into

book-cases, cupboards, &c. Dr. Fayrer knew of an instance, where, after a night's dâk in a palanquin, a lady, in taking out her things on arriving at her destination, found a krait coiled up under her pillow; it had been her travelling companion all night.

Two Indian vipers, Russell's viper, Daboia russellii, and the kuppur, Echis carinata, claim attention. The daboia is frightfully poisonous. Dr. Fayrer thinks it nearly as poisonous as the cobra. He had one forty-four inches in length which lived in captivity a whole year without food or water; it obstinately refused both, but was vigorous and venomous to the last. It died suddenly. One of these snakes will kill a fowl in from thirty-five seconds to several minutes, a dog in from seven minutes to several hours, a horse in eleven hours. These are less rapid results than those produced by the cobra, but the poison is just as fatal. Dr. Fayrer relates the case of a gentleman who took one of these snakes home, thinking he had a young boa. He was undeceived by the daboia killing a dog which came near it.

The most active and aggressive little venomous snake is the Echis carinata. This creature is always on the defensive, always ready to attack. The echis does not hiss, but it makes a sound very like hissing by rubbing its carinated scales against each other. Dr. Fayrer received a batch of seven of them from Delhi

"They laid all knotted and coiled together in a corner of the cage, so close that it was impossible to distinguish one from the other, a head peeping out here and there. When disturbed they immediately separated, and coiled themselves up in a series of convolutions with the head erect, the mouth open, the eye looking particularly vicious, and with a loud hissing sound they prepared to strike, and frequently they darted the whole body forward a foot or more in the attempt to strike. The head was always erect, and the whole aspect and attitude was that of intense malice and mischief."

The hissing sound they make is by the attrition of the carinated scales; the snake without changing place is in constant motion, like the vermicular movement of the intestine.

Dr. Fayrer's account of the Hydrophide or poisonous sea-snakes is of great interest. Several new species described by Dr. Anderson, of the Indian Museum, are for the first time given to the scientific world in this work. The fangs of the Hydrophida are very small, and the bite they inflict is almost imperceptible, but it is most deadly. Persons who have been bitten by them when bathing usually die in from two to twenty-four hours.

We must refer our readers to the work itself for accounts of the