164 VENOMOUS SNAKES AND THE PHENOMENA OF THEIR VENOMS 



masses. In dogs injected with pseudechis venom the number of erythrocytes 

 quickly commences to diminish, in some cases to less than half of the original 

 within a few hours. Leucocytopoenia is also striking, as in some instances 

 the number of leucocytes diminished to an almost complete disappearance 

 from the circulation. But after from 30 minutes to 5 hours they reappear 

 almost as numerously as at first. Leucocytopoenia occurs to a trifling extent 

 when the venom is subcutaneously injected. After a few days leucocytosis 

 reaches its height, often 4 or 5 times the normal proportion. 



The bile contained haemoglobin, as Ragotzi found also in the case of cobra- 

 venom injection. 



Cunningham demonstrated in several experiments that if the blood of an 

 animal which has received a large dose of cobra venom, either intravenously 

 or subcutaneously, be withdrawn from the body after death and allowed to 

 clot, the serum which exudates from the clot is of a red color; also that, 

 if a fowl has been employed, many free nuclei of the red cells are found on 

 examining the blood at death; there has been, in fact, a considerable solution 

 of the bodies of the red cells. Further, he has shown that if the dose of 

 venom injected into a fowl is very large, namely, o.i to 0.3 gm., the blood at 

 death contains a great abundance of free nuclei, and the remaining red cells 

 appear deformed; and if the specimen be allowed to stand, at the end of a 

 few hours complete destruction will have taken place. 



In 1898 Weir Mitchell and Stewart ^ described the injurious effects exerted 

 by the crotalus venom upon the erythrocytes and leucocytes of the blood of 

 rabbits, snakes, monkeys, and man when mixed outside of the body. The 

 observations were made under the microscope with sealed slide-prepara- 

 tions. Haemolysis was observed with venom-blood mixtures if the venom is 

 not too concentrated, but not with the blood containing an equal quantity of 

 the fresh venom. 



Lamb (1903) confirmed the experiments of Cunningham on the destructive 

 action of cobra venom in vivo upon the blood corpuscles of various animals. 

 He also states the instances in case of man where cell-free sanguineous exudate 

 was found around the point of snake bite. In a donkey receiving slightly 

 over the minimal lethal dose of cobra venom he observed a blood-stained 

 mucous discharge from the rectum. 



With daboia venom Lamb made a series of experiments to determine the 

 effects of intravenous and subcutaneous injections of this venom into monkeys, 

 rabbits, pigeons, horses, and donkeys, and obtained results which clearly 

 demonstrate the destructive action of venom upon the corpuscles in vivo. 

 Ante-mortem and post-mortem examinations of the condition of the blood 

 of the venomized animals showed that the serum separated from the loose 

 clots drawn a little before and after death were always stained with free 

 haemoglobin. If oedema existed around the site of injection of the venom it 

 was red color, but contained no red corpuscles. The urine was dark brown. 



1 Weir Mitchell and Stewart. A contribution to the study of the action of the venom of Crotalus ada- 

 vmnteus upon the blood. Trans. Coll. Physicians of Philadelphia, 1897. 3d series, XIX, 105. 



