VENOMS IN THE ANIMAL SERIES 299 



A few drops of this liquid are sufficient to kill guinea-pigs, which, 

 immediately after receiving an injection in the thigh, exhibit paralysis 

 of the leg with tetanic convulsions ; twenty-four hours later an 

 eschar is formed, and death supervenes on the second or third day. 



Two or three drops, introduced into the marginal vein of the ear 

 of a rabbit, cause death from asphyxia in from four to ten minutes. 

 The heart continues to beat for a fairly long time after respiration 

 has entirely ceased ; the blood is not coagulated. 



The toxicity of this venom is completely destroyed by heating it 

 to 100'' C, by chloride of lime, and by chloride of gold. Anti- 

 venomous serum prepared from horses vaccinated against cobra- 

 venom has absolutely no effect upon it in vitro. There is therefore 

 no affinity between this venom and that of snakes. 



Weever-venom dissolves the red corpuscles of the horse in the 

 presence of normal heated horse-serum, but does not dissolve them 

 in the presence of fresh serum. The non-heated serum, therefore, as 

 I have shown with reference to the action of cobra-venom on the 

 blood, contains a natural antihaemolysin. 



Briot succeeded in vaccinating rabbits by accustoming them to 

 the venom, and in obtaining from them a serum capable of neutral- 

 ising the latter in vitro, and of immunising fresh rabbits against 

 doses several times lethal, even when injected intravenously. 



According to Gressin, the following phenomena are produced in 

 man as the result of Weever-stings : — 



" At first there is felt an excruciating, shooting, paralysing 

 pain, which, in the case of nervous persons, may cause attacks of 

 leipothymia ending in syncope. A kind of painful formication next 

 pervades the injured limb, which becomes swollen and inflamed, 

 and may even, if treatment be neglected, form the starting point 

 of a gangrenous phlegmon. 



" This condition is frequently accompanied by certain general 

 phenomena — such as fever, delirium, and bilious vomiting, the 

 duration of which is variable, since they may only last for two or 

 three hours, or may continue for several days. Fishermen rightly 



