Here’s the thing.
I know a lot of Herpers who get mightily peeved if someone refers to snakes such as Rattle Snakes as “poisonous.” They say poisonous=injesting and venomous=injected.
Since I’ve taken this on as a pet peeve, I decided I should find out the Straight Dope on the proper usage of these words. Is a Cobra poisonous or venomous?
I hope I’m spelling “poisonous” correctly. I’ve stared at it so long that it now looks like gibberish.
You have already answered the question yourself. A cobra ‘envenomates’ - it is venomous.
People eat cobra and live, so it cannot be poisonous.
I never thought of it, but that sounds right. Could you say its venom is poisonous? Or, would it be more proper to refer to the effects of the venom (i.e., paralyzing, etc.)
Venom is poisonous. Otherwise, it would be piss-poor venom. Ever tried to kill something by injecting it with pure saline? Not gonna work. (At least, not gonna work before the animal stands up, shakes itself off, and walks away.)
Anyway, it’s spelled `ingesting’. Unless you play with your food.
If you get poisoned when it bites you, it’s venomous.
If you get poisoned when you bite it, it’s poisonous.
[QUOTE=Derleth]
Ever tried to kill something by injecting it with pure saline? Not gonna work. QUOTE]
Isotonic at least. As Paracelsus said “dose* makes the poison”.
*or conc.
You can swallow the venom of many snakes without ill effect, as long as you don’t have any open wounds on the inside of your mouth. It’s harmless unless injected directly into the bloodstream.
A poisonous substance, on the other hand, will stay poisonous even after having been through your stomach acid. Of course, many substances are both, but it is possible for a venom to not be a poison.
Ah, thaks. I guess my peeve was justified, then.
Thanks!
I just get REAL tired of posters at zoos in the vanomous snake areas that say “Know Your Poisons” when referring to the different types of venom. I figured I was annoyed by something that didn’t matter, that the zoos knew what they were talking about. Apparently not.
antechinus, I thought pure (simple) saline was defined to be 3% solution, and therefore isotonic with bodily fluids.
As for dose, read my parenthetical. 