ISO NINTH ANNUAL REPORT OF 



them unfit for circulation, is not a new one, for Fontana alludes to it, 

 but says he had not been able to detect in them any change. 



This arose, no doubt, from the imperfect instruments employed, and 

 from the deficient means of examination. Fontana claimed to have 

 invented the microscope, but only used a single lens, and examined 

 blood in considerable quantities. 



By using the most perfect microscope, and examining the blood of 

 frogs and of pigeons, in which the globules are ovoid and of large size, 

 I have been able to discover that, after poisoning by serpent bite or the 

 woorara, their form is constantly altered, so that, instead of being of a 

 distinct and regular outline, they are found irregular, indented, and 

 partially disintegrated. 



Those taken from the capillaries are most, those from the heart and 

 large vessels least affected ; but even of the former only a small portion 

 of the whole number will be found changed, as death takes place before 

 all have time to become mutually affected. 



When death occurs quickly from the effect of the bite of the rattle- 

 snake or from the woorara, it is, in my view, from these substances 

 being absorbed, and acting upon the blood by altering the form of the 

 globules, so as to render them unfit for circulation, whereby they are 

 arrested in the capillary vessels of the brain, and thus destroy its action. 



There are doubtless other changes produced on the circulating fluid 

 besides this of the globules. 



The late Dr. J. W. Burnett, of Boston, noticed that when blood ob- 

 tained by pricking his finger was mingled with the venom of the rattle- 

 snake, the globules ceased to run together, as they naturally do. 



But I think the change of the globules which I have detected is of 

 itself quite sufficient to account for the sudden effects even of the most 

 violent poisons. 



The iDclief that some substances cause death by their effect upon the 

 blood seems to have prevailed long before it was expressed by Fontana. 



Shakspeare, with that intuitive perception of truth characteristic of 

 his writings, has adopted it in his account of the killing of the king, 

 when the ghost thus describes to Hamlet the effects of the poison: 



" Sleeping within mine orchard, 

 My custom always in the afternoon, 

 Upon my secure hour thy uncle stole, 

 With juice of cursed hebanon in a vial. 

 And in the porches of mine ears did pour 

 The leperous distilment, whose effect 

 Bears such an enmity to the blood of man 

 That, swift as quicksilver, it courses through 

 The natural gates and alleys of the body, 

 And, with a sudden vigor, it doth posset 

 And curd, like eager droppings into milk, 

 The thin and wholesome blood ; so did it mine. 

 And a most instant tetter marked about, 

 Most lazar like, with vile and loathsome crust. 

 All my smooth body." 



We arrive now at the consideration of the second part of our sub- 

 ject, the treatment of poisoning by serpent bite, and the woorara. 



According to the division of scientific studies most commonly adopted, 

 the pursuit of science for itself^, pure science as it is called, ranks above 

 any practical application of it, however important and useful this latter 



