Short for COBRA DE CAPELLO; also applied with distinctive additions to other Indian vipers. Also attrib., as in cobra poison.
1817. Asiatic Jrnl., (1818), VI. 227. The Cobra Manilla is known on the Malabar coast as the bangle snake.
1836. T. Cantor, in Asiat. Res., XIX. 92. Besides Cobras, there are other hooded serpents in this country.
1860. Gosse, Rom. Nat. Hist., 265. The people of London were shocked by the sudden death of Curling, one of the keepers of the Zoological gardens, from the bite of a cobra.
1879. Watts, Dict. Chem., 3rd Supp. 547. A weak solution of potash … destroys the physiological activity of cobra poison.
