Sarpavisha,

Garala.

Serpent poison has been used in Hindu Medicine since a very recent period only. Even the Bhάvaprάkasa which is not more than three centuries old does not mention it. Prescriptions containing it are found in such modern compilations as the Bhaishajya ratnabali, Sarkaumudi, etc.

The poison of the black cobra (Naga tripudians. Vern. Keute sap, Beng.) is used. It is collected by making the reptile bite on a piece of stick or wood when the poison is poured out and received on a piece of plantain leaf. It is preserved in two ways. The liquid poison is allowed to congeal and dry in a cup or it is rubbed with a fourth part of mustard oil and spread out on a piece of plantain leaf. Thus treated it rapidly coagulates into a granular agglutinated mass of a yellowish-brown colour. When allowed to dry spontaneously, serpent poison coagulates into shining, crystalline yellowish white granules. It is used in complicated fever in combination with arsenic, aconite and other medicines. Numerous formulae containing this poison are given in recent compilations. The following are a couple of examples.

Suchikά bharana rasa1 Take of mercury, sulphur, prepared tin, aconite and cobra poison, equal parts, mix them together and soak the mixed powder in the bile of rohitaka fish (Cypriniis Rohita), wild boar, peacock, buffalo and goat successively and make into a pill-mass. This medicine is administered in doses that can be taken up by the point of a needle, hence it is called tuchikabharana. It is given in remittent fever with cerebral complications.

Kάlάnala rasa,1 Take of black cobra poison, sulphur, white arsenic, aconite, black pepper, long pepper, ginger, borax, mercury, prepared iron and copper equal parts; soak them in the five kinds of bile mentioned above and make into one-grain pills with the juice of datura root. These are given in fever with coma, delirium and drowsiness.