Venom
Snakes seems to be one of the oldest living creatures on this planet, even before human could step on this planet. It is believed that they used to live with those dinosaurs and those large 40 foot crocodiles that once inhabited the ancient earth. Although these are no longer there now, but still the crocodiles and the snakes have managed to stay alive, making us think and ponder over the secret of their existence.
And the reason that has been cited for their existence is because of their venom, that they produce, it’s that which has kept them holding for such a long time. After being through all this one would surely ask what is snake venom? And what is made of? Then here’s the answer to your question!
Snake venom is actually a saliva that is produce and created by the snake itself, and this is produced in the body of the snake because of some special glands, which is only found in some deadly snakes. It’s actually the pituitary gland that secrets this toxic saliva and this is usually situated just below the eye of the snake.
There is a small bag like structure that is just above the fangs of the snake and when the snake is about to attack or one can say when it bites its prey the venom is injected through the fangs. The fangs of the snake are like those hypodermic needles that are hollow and they have holes at the end, so it’s when they inject the venom through it.
There are two types of venom that most of the snakes produce and that is the haemotoxic venom and the neurotoxin venom. The haemotoxic venom is more deadly that the other neurotoxins because this is a venom that has the capacity to rot and melt all the body tissues, so the body tissue and the cells that are affected with this venom would automatically start rotting and this would also spread over in your body.
This ends up with gangrene and finally the doctor has to amputate that part of the body.
The neurotoxin is not as devastating as the haemotoxic because it directly kills the person, so at least one does not need to go through all the pain and the suffering, which is caused by the haemotoxic venom. But this venom results in body paralysis and ultimately heart attack within some few hours if not treated immediately with anti venom.
This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 21st, 2009 at 10:48 am and is filed under Information. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.