466 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1893. 



circulation, and local effects wliicli develop at the point of injection 

 and in tbe adjoining tissues. These local lesions consist in a more or 

 less intense swelling, and in a purple or black discoloration produced 

 by extravasation of blood and serum in the tissues allected by the 

 venom. The death, which is due to the direct absorption of the venom, 

 arrives very rapidly, and the characteristic internal hemorrhages are 

 observed; the death, however, which is the consequence of the infec- 

 tion of local origin is slower, and the ordinary internal lesions are not 

 found, but, on tlie contrary, considerable local alterations. The danger 

 from the injection varies with the part of the body inoculated; thus 

 injections of venom made on the inner side of the thighs or on the nose 

 are very dangerous; those practiced on the side of the thorax muscles 

 less so. The micro-organisms accompanying the local lesions are only 

 accidental and secondary productions; they find excellent conditions 

 for their propagation and multiplication in the altered or mortified 

 tissue, but inoculated into healthy animals they do not produce the 

 specific effects of the venom. After the injection under the skin, the 

 poison is slowly diffused in the adjoining tissues and determines their 

 progressive alteration without itself being altered in any way, for the 

 venom can be traced in its full activity in the local lesions, and serum 

 taken from the altered tissues, if injected into healthy animals, devel- 

 ops the ordinary effects of the venom; this serum, consequently, con- 

 tains a certain quantity of active venom. On the other hand, venom 

 does not accumulate in an appreciable quantity neither in the liver, the 

 kidneys, nor the nervous centers, as serum taken from these tissues 

 has remained inactive in animals inoculated with it. 



Mit(;hell and Keichert had confirmed the destructive action of certain 

 chemicals upon the venom and discovered others of similar action, 

 notably permanganate of potassium, ferric chloride, iodine and bromine. 

 To these Kaufmann adds chromic acid, which he highly recommends as 

 a remedy for the local lesions. 



The fact that chromic acid in a solution of 1 to 100 is one of the 

 reagents which produces the greatest precipitate in the venom, besides 

 being an energetic oxidizer, led Prof. Kaufmann to institute a series of 

 very interesting experiments with it, which only lack of space prevents 

 me from reproducing here in their entirety. Suffice it to say that they 

 prove conclusively the potent and beneficent action of the chromic acid, 

 not only when it is injected mixed with the venom, but also when intro- 

 duced some time after the poisoning. The last experiment of the series 

 (Xo. XXXV) is very instructive. Four dogs of about equal size were 

 inoculated on the inner side of the thigh with two drops of fresh viper 

 venom obtained immediately before the injection. One was left with- 

 out further treatment, the others had injected in the puncture, five 

 minutes after, respectively 1:100 solutions of chromic acid, perman- 

 ganate of potassium, and bichoride of mercury. The following morning 

 all showed local congestions, and in the evening of that day the dog 



