Snakebite envenoming constitutes an important public health problem in Latin America and some countries of the Caribbean. The advances and pending tasks in the study and control of this neglected tropical disease in this region are reviewed in the light of a roadmap proposed in 2006. Significant progress has been achieved in the study of snake venoms, particularly regarding venom proteomics, i....

Non-native (exotic) snakes are a problematic source of envenomation worldwide. This manuscript describes the current demographics, outcomes and challenges of non-native snakebites in the United States (U.S.). We performed a retrospective case series of the National Poison Data System (NPDS) database between 2005 and 2011. There were 258 human exposures involving at least 61 unique exotic venomo...

Although the resistance of snakes to their own venom is well known, until now no investigators have examined the serum of Australian snakes. Here we describe the identification and purification of a range of phospholipase A(2) (PLA(2)) inhibitors from the serum of Australian elapids. All PLA(2) inhibitors were composed of two protein chains, an alpha-chain and a beta-chain. The alpha-chains wer...

About 35 plants are enumerated for their medicinal uses in curing diseases like anti-inflammatory, antipyretic, asthma, malaria, snake bites, diabetes, etc. Their family, binominal local name and part of the plant used with the ailment for which administered are tabulated.

an ordinary flour-mill behind which the snake lay hidden from view. No effort was made by the parents to kill the animal, which was allowed to run put in their presence and enter into the rubbish heaps about the house; such deadly snakes being held sacred, and worshipped by the ignorant and superstitious Hindus, and not unfrequently cherished with milk and bread put in the holes in which they a...

The introduced brown tree snake has had devastating impacts on the native vertebrate fauna of Guam. Trapping is the primary means by which brown tree snakes are removed, either in support of reintroduction of endangered species or to deter their movement from Guam in cargo. Traps used to control brown tree snake populations have been continually evolving since the 1980s. Before general operatio...

liable mode of treating cases of snake-bite. In investigations regarding the action of drugs of a complex nature, it frequently occurs that the physiological action of the drug, considered as a whole, differs from its isolated constituents. Thus, while opium is narcotic, thebaia, one of its constituents, is purely excitant, and in doses of one grain causes tetanic spasms (Farquharson). The expe...

Indigo Snakes (genus Drymarchon) occur from northern Argentina northward into to the United States, where they inhabit southern Texas and disjunct populations in Mississippi, Florida and Georgia. Based on allopatry and morphological differences Collins (1991) hypothesized that the two United States taxa-the Western Indigo Snake, D. melanurus erebennus (Cope, 1860), and the Eastern Indigo Snake,...

a snake at night in his quarters while asleep. The snake was 'probably a krait (Bungar,us Coernleus) which was no doubt disturbed by a comrade who had come to deceased for a light. Between 2 and 3 a.m., on 12th September 1899, deceased was found in his quarters by a non-commissioned officer to be suffering from faintnessand much pain in his left, leg which had become powerless. It was thought a...