INDIAN SNAKE POISONS,
lower animals coagulated. If examined directly after death no changes can be recognised by the microscope. After a time the corpuscles may change in shape, become crenated, and blood-crystals may form, but at the moment of death no change can be recognised. The parotid glands may be swollen. The brain presents no marked deviation from normal. The veins of the pia mater are usually gorged with blood, and the ventricles often contain turbid fluid. The muscles are often of a dirty red colour. The subcutaneous veins bleed freely on section. The lungs may be pale and contain but little blood, but in the human subject they are generally found congested, the bronchi and the smaller tubes being often filled with a thin frothy fluid, and their lining membrane intensely injected. Occasionally portions of food or of remedies are to be found in the air-tubes, the result of administration while the larynx was paralysed. The heart is distended with blood, especially the right side. The liver bleeds freely on incision, and is quite dark from contained blood, but this is not universal. The kidneys vary from normal to excessive congestion, being seen in all stages. The stomach may, or may not, contain food — a proof that cobra-poisoning in the human subject does not always cause evacuation of the contents of the stomach. There is no regular change in the intestinal tract, which may be injected in places. The bladder is generally firmly contracted.
