320 THE VENOM OF THE AUSTRALIAN BLACK SNAKE, 



Armstrong,* and still earlier Dumas, had made ultimate 

 analyses with similar results. 



In 1883 Wall published a very interesting book, " Indian 

 Snake Poisons, their Nature and Effect," in which are two facts 

 of special importance, viz.: — (i) That the whole of the poisonous 

 properties reside in the coagulum by absolute alcohol, and that if 

 the alcohol be absolute, the filtrate is innocuous, (ii) That the 

 poisonous principle is taken up by distilled water from this pre- 

 cipitate by alcohol, and that the solution so obtained possesses 

 all the properties of cobra poison. 



Since then three papers by Norris Wolfendenf have appeared 

 in the Journal of Physiology. In these papers Dr. Wolfenden 

 establishes the proteid nature of the poison, and excludes the 

 possibility of alkaloids, ptomaines, germs and any body of the 

 nature of cobric acid. He claims to have separated an albumen, 

 an albuminate, and a globulin from cobra venom, to all of which 

 he ascribes poisonous properties. 



Investigations into the nature of the poisons of the American 

 rattle-snakes, the mocassin and copper-heads have been carried on 

 by Drs. Weir Mitchell and Reichert, whose results appeared as a 

 preliminary report in the Medical News, Philadelphia, 1883. 



A complete account was published by the same authors in the 

 Smithsonian Contribution to Knowledge for 1890. 



They prove the proteid character of snake poison in American 

 snakes, and ascribe poisonous properties to three varieties of 

 globulin, which they separated by "appropriate processes," and a 

 peptone. The reactions given by their so-called peptone are 

 characteristic of that class of bodies which we now know as 

 albumoses. 



With the idea of determining the presence of albumoses, in the 

 venom of our Australian snakes, I proceeded in the following 

 manner. 



I placed the poison from the ducts, and the squeezings from the 

 glands, of two black snakes under a laige volume of absolute 

 alcohol for three months. By this treatment the whole of the 



* Snake Comm. Rep. 1874. 

 + Journ. Physiol. Vol. vii. 



