312 EXPERIMENTS MADE ON THE 



the livino- Crotalus. tested in numerous instances with litmus 

 paper. &c. invariably displayed acid properties*. 



General Remarks. 



In conclusion it appears, that of the number of reptiles ex- 

 hibited, some possessed the venomous faculty to a considerable 

 decree, in others the poison was less active, and in some it 

 had entirely disappeared, and in the latter the poison sack 

 was found, on dissection, entirely empty. 



These circumstances are readily explained when we are 

 aware that the reptiles have remained in captivity without 

 food for more than three months, during a cold season of the 

 year. and. until within a few days of the experiments, de- 

 prived of water. It is more than probable that very little 

 poison would be secreted during a state of perfect abstinence, 

 and that of less activity than when produced under ordinary 

 circumstances. Hence the same reptiles whose bite occasion- 

 ed the death of an animal in eight minutes, when the experi- 

 ments were performed in September, required five hours in 

 order to produce fatal results at the present period. The 

 operation of the poison on the animal system also varied. In 

 September, when the animals died early after the infliction 

 of the wound, death was preceded by convulsions, which was 

 not the case in the present instance : but the animal appear- 

 ed to suffer more pain, and finally fell into a state of stupi- 

 dity, which continued for several hours, when death was 

 produced by the slow r operation of the poison on the system. 

 On dissection the usual appearances produced by such poisons 



* SimilaT observations relative to the acidity of tbis poison were long a<jo made 

 by Dr lirickell of Savannah, who, speaking of the external application of the so- 

 lution ofc LUStic ley to the hite of the Rattlesnake, states " I was led to this by a 

 chemical examination of the poison of the Crotalus Jiorridus. which shewed an 

 acid to be one of its constituents." — Vid. New York Medical Repository, vol. viii. 

 p. 441. 



