generally known, understood and acted upon. 

 1 have, therefore, thought it necessary to collect 

 into a short point of view the facts, related by 

 Fontana, and the general conclusions he drew 

 from them, and to compare them with the 

 principal facts, established \^y the investigation 

 above alluded to. 



fbj " I destined, says Fontana, 3Q0 frogs 

 for these experiments and by means of pincers 

 and scissars, I laid bare the crural nerves in 

 such a manner, that they were entirely free of 

 every other part, and obtained about 8 or 10 

 lines of nerve totally clear and in some very 

 large frogs even more. I then let fall the 

 nerves of each thigh into a small hollow glass, 

 which received them in such a way that I can 

 fill each glass with a fluid of any kind without 

 Its touching the adjacent muscles. I usually 

 have been able to put into these glasses, such a 

 proportion of whatever I wish to try on the 

 nerves, as to cover the greater part of them 

 with it, without its being possible for any of 

 the liquor to find its way to the thighs and mix 

 with the blood. In this way I can make a 

 comparison betwixt the nerves, that are en- 

 venomed and those that are not j compute the 



(bj Medical Extracts 6S0. Vol. S. 



