SNAKE POISON. 5 



may be gathered from the fact that one-thousandth part of 

 a grain invariably kills a rabbit of five pounds weight in 

 about a hundred seconds. 



This extraordinary toxicity becomes more astounding 

 still when we consider that the poison is a proteid undis- 

 tinguishable by chemical methods from those daily used as 

 food by all of us. 



The question of chemical constitution we take next. 

 The first investigation into the chemistry of the snake poi- 

 son of any importance was by Prince Lucien Buonaparte 

 on the poison of an adder in 1843. He found that the 

 activity of the poison was associated with that portion pre- 

 cipitated by alcohol; and he gave the name "viperine" to this 

 precipitate. Dr. Weir Mitchell next turned his attention 

 to the subject about 1S60 ; and he is essentially the founder 

 of our present knowledge concerning snake poison. Crude 

 as were the methods of animal chemistry in his day, they 

 nevertheless led him to the right conclusion that the toxic 

 principle of the venom is albuminoid in nature. He termed 

 it " croatalin " in the case of the rattlesnake. From that time 

 till 1886, in conjunction with Reichert, he continued his 

 work, and confirmed his general conclusion in the case of 

 other North American snakes. About 1871 the Indian 

 snakes received their share of attention ; and the names of 

 Sir Joseph Fayrer and Dr. Lauder Brunton are associated 

 with valuable researches concerning the venom of the cobra, 

 kraits and the Indian viper. 



In 1883 Wall, in 18S6 Wolfenden, and in 1893 Kanthack 

 published most instructive contributions to our knowledge 

 of cobra venom ; the improved methods of chemical physio- 

 logy enabling them not only to identify the poison as a pro- 

 teid, but to show that the variety of proteid present is an 

 albumose. Two observers only of importance have de- 

 scribed poisons other than proteid in snake venom : one of 

 these was Gautier, who regarded the venomous principle as 

 alkaloidal ; and the other, Winter Blyth, who gave the name 

 14 cobric acid " to a highly poisonous crystalline substance he 

 claimed to have separated from cobra venom. Recent work 

 has failed to substantiate these results, and alkaloids when 



