40 PHYSIOLOGY AND TOXICOLOGY 



Experiment. — In this experiment, I prepared a large gland, as above described, 

 and inserted it in seven localities about the body, back, and legs of a pigeon. 

 Around two of these, on the back, a little darkening was visible, and one of them 

 sloughed after several days. 



Experiment. — A snake thirty inches long was properly secured, a pigeon arranged 

 as usual, and placed within reach. The snake bit it on the neck, where a local 

 discoloration showed itself at once. On further provocation, by pinching its tail, 

 it bit the pigeon several times, until, as I supposed, the venom was exhausted. As 

 the snake had been used to kill a rabbit live days before, I presume the quantity 

 of venom not to have been large, nor, indeed, could it have been so, as the pigeon 

 did not die for forty minutes. The snake's head was next cut off. Placed on a 

 plate, it bit eagerly, but threw out no venom, even when I galvanized the anterior 

 temporal muscle after removing the cuticle. 



Both of the venom glands were removed, squeezed thoroughly, divided length- 

 Avise and across, and repeatedly wiped with a soft towel. Twelve drops of water 

 were then added, and both glands hashed up with it, a drop or two being added as 

 it dried. The temperature was that of the air, 75° F. At the close of thirty-five 

 minutes, I carefully removed all the fluid with a pipette, and injected it under the 

 breast-skin, and into the muscles of a pigeon. Five hours later, the bird was well, 

 and the wound quite dry. Eighteen hours after inoculation, it yielded, upon pres- 

 sure, a little serous fluid, and around the part, infilti'ated with the artificial secre- 

 tion, there was a slight darkening of the skin, whether due to the presence of a 

 small amount of poison, and the consequent extravasation, or to my having 

 wounded small vessels, I am unable to say. Certainly, no other evidences of 

 poison were noted, and the wound healed after a little serous oozing. No slough 

 took place. 



Experiment. — The gland tissue employed in the last observation, was dried by 

 frequent wiping, and being minutely divided, was put under the skin of a rabbit's 

 back. The animal had no constitutional disturbance as a consequence, and was 

 sacrificed after five days to another purpose. A small abscess had formed around 

 the foreign tissues, and was making its way outwards. No extravasation was 

 visible. 



Experiment. — On another occasion, an infusion of two small glands from a snake 

 twenty-nine and a half inches long, was used upon a rabbit, without effect visible 

 to the eye. The fluid seemed to have been absorbed without local or general injury 

 to the animal. 



Experiment. — The whole tissue of the glands just mentioned was finally minced, 

 bruised, dried in bibulous paper, and carefully inti'oduced under the skin of a 

 pigeon's breast, by pushing in a small tube laterally, and through this distributing 

 the crushed gland tissue as the tube was withdrawn. In this way, the inoculation 

 was effected without much separation of the skin from the parts beneath. In 

 despite of this- precaution, extensive inflammation ensued, and a large slough of 

 skin took place, the tissues about the wound becoming infiltrated with serum. No 

 local or general symptoms of poisoning were noted, but the bird sank, became 

 thin, refused food, and died at the close of eight days. 



