Common Brown Snake, Pseudonaja textilis
Plate 23, Figure 1. Common Brown Snake, Diemenia superciliosa (now known as Pseudonaja textilis), found at Sebastian, Sandhurst
This is one of the largest of the poisonous and very dangerous snakes of the colony, and is more generally distributed than any of the others, being equally common from the south coast to our northern Murray boundary. In the experiments made by Dr. Halford on snake poisoning, tabulated in the Medical Society's Journal for March 1875, all the cases of people bitten by the Brown Snake and treated by the injection of ammonia recovered; but in one of the last cases mentioned in the public journals (Bendigo Advertiser, 27th October 1877), a snake of this species, 3 feet 6 inches long (the fifth in above table of measurements), bit Mrs. Eleanor Ingleby, residing at Sebastian, in the hand, and she died from the effects within fifteen minutes. The acting coroner, Mr. Strickland, who held the inquest, sent the specimen to the Museum, where it is now deposited, so that the species is determined with certainty.