6 SCIENCE PROGRESS. 



present at all (and they are generally absent) are non- 

 poisonous ones. 



In the researches on the venom of the Australian black 

 snake, Martin and Smith found it necessary to exclude 

 various classes of poisons, as well as to determine positively 

 the nature of the venom. They excluded in the first place 

 by appropriate experiments the presence of micro-organisms, 

 ferments, alkaloids, ptomaines, and crystalline acids. 1 In 

 the second place they showed that the poison was a pro- 

 teid. The methods for the separation of proteids from one 

 another are highly technical. It will therefore be sufficient to 

 say that the manipulations were of the most recent and per- 

 fect kind, and pass to the results obtained. In the proteid 

 mixture three proteids were obtained : one an albumin, and 

 the other two albumoses. The albumin is not virulent, 

 but the two albumoses (corresponding to proto- and hetero- 

 albumoses of Kuhne) are extremely poisonous. They each 

 have the same physiological action, and this is the same as 

 that produced by the venom itself. The venom can be 

 momentarily boiled without impairing its activity, but pro- 

 longed boiling for days destroys its virulence. 



The action of the poison may be described under two 

 heads, (i) local and (2) general effects. The most marked 

 of the local effects is oedema ; the general symptoms consist 

 of twitching and convulsions in non-lethal doses. A fatal 

 dose kills within a few seconds or minutes. There is also 

 a peculiar effect on the blood, which I propose to deal with 

 more in detail immediately. 



The conception put forward of the formation of these 

 albumoses is the following : — 



The cells of the venom-gland by a vital process exercise 

 a hydrating influence on the albumins supplied to them by 

 the blood, the results of which influence are the albumoses 

 found in the venom. The difference between this process 

 and digestion by pepsin or by anthrax bacilli is that the 

 hydration stops short at the albumose stage, and is not 

 continued so as to form peptone or simpler nitrogenous pro- 



1 A questionable trace of an organic acid found did not possess toxic 

 properties. 



