SNAKE POISON. g 



authors moistened the mesentery of a cat with a solution 

 of rattlesnake venom, and observed under the microscope 

 the rapid formation of extensive capillary haemorrhages. 

 Martin repeated these experiments, using black snake venom ; 

 and although the action of this poison is less rapid than was 

 the case in Mitchell's experiments, the results were identical. 



Whether the venom causes any destruction of the white 

 blood corpuscles is doubtful. These are massed together 

 in such a way that their enumeration becomes a difficult 

 matter. The plasma is stained with haemoglobin, indicating 

 that a slight solvent action on the red corpuscles has taken 

 place. This, however, is not a distinctive action of snake 

 venom. It is, moreover, well known that substances like 

 distilled water which produce extensive disintegration of 

 blood corpuscles within the blood stream never produce 

 thrombosis ; so that, even if the venom produces a disap- 

 pearance of the leucocytes, that would in itself be insufficient 

 to cause intravascular coagulation. 



From this summary of the subject of snake poison one 

 sees how much of interest exists in such researches. They 

 open up fresh questions in wide and important general sub- 

 jects, two of which, namely, blood coagulation and the 

 poisonous nature of certain proteids, it has been the object 

 of this paper specially to emphasise. 



W. D. Halliburton. 



