172 VENOMS 



found to be coagulated into a mass in all the vessels; it afterwards 

 gradually becomes redissolved in six or eight hours, and then 

 appears laccate, as after poisoning by Cobra-venom, but darker. 



All mammals exhibit the same symptoms after inosulation with 

 lethal doses of venom. The same applies to birds ; but in the 

 latter the period of asphyxia is much longer, probably on account 

 of the reserves of air accumulated in their air-sacs and pneumatic 

 bones. They gape like pigeons that are being suffocated, rest the 

 tip of the beak on the floor of the cage, and frequently have con- 

 \ulsive spasms of the pharynx, accompanied by flapping of the 

 wdngs. Small birds and even pigeons are extremely sensitive to 

 venom ; fowls are more resistant. 



Frogs, thanks to their cutaneous respiration, succumb very 

 slowly. I have seen some survive for thirty hours after being 

 inoculated with a quantity of venom which, when subcutaneously 

 injected into a rabbit, causes death in ten minutes. 



Lizards and chameleons succumb very rapidly. Grass Snakes 

 and non-venon]ous snakes in general withstand doses of venom 

 that in proportion to their weight are fairly large ; nevertheless, 

 as indeed we shall see in the sequel, they do not possess any 

 real immunity. It is only poisonous snakes that are unaffected 

 by enormous doses of their own venom, as has ah'eady been shown 

 by Fontana, Weir Mitchell, and Viaud Grand Marais. They are, 

 however, quite capable of being poisoned by snakes belonging to 

 altogether different species ; strong doses of Crotalus- or Lachesis- 

 venom are fatal to Cobras or Kraits, and, when several poisonous 

 snakes are sluit up together in the same cage, they are not in- 

 frequently seen to kill each other as the result of repeated bites. 



Fishes, which are particularly sensitive to the venom of Hydro- 

 PHiii)^, readily succumb to inoculation with other venoms, such 

 as that of the Cobra. At Saigon, in 1891, I made experiments 

 upon the action of this latter venom on two specimens of the 



