Greene County herald. (Leakesville, Miss.) 1898-current, 1899-03-23
HOW COBRA STRIKES.
THE faction 10 MAGNIFICENT
AND YET SWIFT.
Life Saved by Half Seoond-Snake
Has Sometimes Slipped on the Body
by the Mere Impetus of the Blow -
Clothing a Potectlon. v

is, they are not coated with poison;
nor even have they a capillary tube
running inside along their length,
through which the cobra injects the
poison into the wound. II that were
the case the cobra could not seize Its
food, Q. g., rat, without injecting 1t
with poison, says the Wide World
Magazine. No; nature is not so clum-
sy or wasteful in her ordinations, not
outstanding popular belief to the con-
trary. The fact is there is a fine tube
running from the base of each OF the
two fangs backward under the eye to
an almond-shaped gland or bag, which
contains the poison. This gland is con-
stantly secreting the poison, with
small supply for immediate use.
Hence, If the tube connecting the gland
to the base of the fang were kept open,
the poison would be constantly running
out into the mouth of the cobra, and
thus wasted to no purpose. To prevent
this a circular muscle binds the tube
somewhere about the middle. But
when the cobra strikes its prey this
muscle Is relaxed and another one
squeezes the poison bag and thus in
Jects the poison. But let us describe
the whole process of striking and see
what the cobra does when he means
mischief. He expands his head and
rears at least a third of his length in
the air, with the rest of the body coiled
IN the form Of q spiral. This spiral
form gives him sufficient anchorage to
rear his body by sheer muscular effort,
and also the necessary leverage in
dealing the blow His eyes glisten like
a basilisk's, his forked tongue darts in
and out with low, kissing sound.
suddenly he throws back his head with
low curve, and as swiftly darts for
ward to his victim, partly as plunge
and partly as a spring, unfolding a
portion of his coil to increase his range
1t looks as if the cobra sprang into the
air, but, as a matter of fact, his belly
usually touches the ground at the mo-
ment Of striking, in order to afford him
sufficient leverage to imbed his fangs In
the body Of his victim. The action is
ma gnificent, ana yet swift as light
ming flash. The tongue is withdrawn,
the mouth wide open. The fangs fall
on the victim as a stab, the lower jaw
closing in beneath as a bite. II the
blow has been fair and square, two
small punctures are made in the flesh
of the victim by the two fangs; other
wise, if the blow has been one-sided,
there will be only one puncture.
Now, the mere striking of the blow is
not enough, and if the c0hra ura-e in
stancaneUusly * withdraw the fangs
after dealing the blow, his prey would
suffer no worse effect than the pain of
those needle-like punctures. It Is still
necessary to inject the poison. In GER
tain cases, indeed, by a strong muscular
action, the poison has been injected
almost simultaneously with the blow:
nay, in case where the cobra was in
ordinately reused to fury, the poison
was shot out by a strong muscular eff
fort while the cobra was still in the
act of plunging-and in this case the
intended victim, who was really out of
range, escaped the blow but had the
poison squirted all over him. Still.
however, in most cases the poison is in
jected after the blow-though it be but
half a second after. That half second
has saved many life-for instance.
where the blow, not being struck full
in the body, but only on the edge of it.
the cobra slipped off the body by the
mere impetus Of the blow, causing the
fangs to scratch along the skin in two
thin lines. Assuming, however, that
the blow has been struck full on the
body of the victim, the cobra imme-
diately after the blow ii. e., as soon as
he has partially recovered from his own
impetus, which is in about a second or
so) wriggles his head either to the
right or to the left. This act of turning
helps to squeeze the poison gland. sit
uated on that side to which the cobra
has turned, and thus to inject the
poison over the puncture on that side.
(Of course, If the cobra has time to
turn both ways, then the poison is de-
posted on both wounds-and the con-
dition Of the victim is doubly des-
perate.) After this discharge the cobra
usually drops off the limb in an inert
mass, as il considerably, though tenn
porarily, weakened by the loss of the
precious fluid There may, of course,
be sufficient secretion still left in the
bag to give a second bite Immediately
after, but in that case the wound may
not necessarily be fatal. 1t usually
takes few hours, sometimes days, to
accumulate the full supply again.
There was, however, one case within
the writer's knowledge where three
small children were successfully bitten
by a large cobra and all three died in
But to resume. 1t will,
therefore, be apparent that (D the
fangs are employed merely to cause the
wound or wounds. e., to open up
communication with the blood of the
victim, and (2) the poison deposited
on the wound mixes with the blood and
eventually causes death, as will be
mentioned later on Hence 1t will be
noted that II the poison is not able to
enter the wound there is no danger. In