OF THE V E N O M F T II E K A T T L E S N A K E . 49 



one fang in the thigh. The snake was found dead on the seventh day after this 

 occurrence. 



Upon careful dissection, I found that tlie venom ghand and the ducts on the 

 right side, were full of a bloody fluid, with a faint all^aline reaction, and containing 

 an abundance of club-shaped epithelial cells. The gland on the left side was nearly 

 empty; its tissue was stained with blood. As I w\as curious to learn whether or 

 not the altered poison had lost its power, I collected all the fluid contents of both 

 glands, and their ducts, and inoculated with them the back, breast, and thigh of 

 a pigeon, inserting in all about nine drops. The pigeon was slightly affected after 

 the lapse of an hour, and was disposed to seek a corner and sleep. Four hours 

 later, however, it was seemingly none the worse for the operation. A small oozing 

 of serum took place from one of the wounds in the back, some days afterwards, but 

 the pigeon suffered no permanent injury. 



This result was enough to convince me that disease might alter the secretion of 

 the venom glands, as it sometimes does that of the human salivary glands. I have 

 alluded to it here, in order to fortify my criticism upon Dr. Salisbury's experiments. 

 It is further to be observed, that Dr. Salisbury did not make any comparative 

 observations, by wounding in a nearly similar manner, but with a clean weapon, 

 plants of the same species and of equal size. 



Beyond the points alluded to, there seems to be no objection to the experiments 

 of Dr. Salisbury. He certainly appears to have been entirely successful in poison- 

 ing plants, with Crotalus venom; since, of eight plants injected, each and all seem 

 to have suffered the same changes. 



I have been the more willing to quote these results in full, because my own 

 efforts to affect plants in the same way were singularly unfortunate. The point 

 on which our experiments admit of no comparison is in regard to the species of the 

 plant employed. At the season when I made my researches upon plant poisoning, 

 I was unable to obtain the same plants as were used by Dr. Salisbury. 



My first experiments upon plant poisoning were incidental to an examination of 

 the power of Crotalus venom to prevent the occurrence of fermentation. After 

 ascertaining, as I have already stated, that the conversion of starch into grape 

 sugar was in no way interfered with when the venom was added to the mixture, I 

 proceeded to ascertain whether or not the vinous fermentation would also take 

 place in its presence. 



Accordingly, a small amount of poison having been procured as usual, I found that 

 it was fatal to a reed-bird, and then proceeded to make the following experiment. 



Experiment.— Ivio test tubes of equal size, and capable of holding about one and 

 a half ounces each, were fitted with corks, through wdiich ran glass tubes, long 

 enough to reach to the bottom. At the lower end, the contained tubes were bent 

 at an acute angle, and drawn to a fine orifice. Above the cork they were also bent 

 so as to form a double U-curve external to the test glass. Each of the test glasses 

 was then filled with a solution of sugar in water, twenty grains of sugar being 

 placed in each apparatus. To No. 1 were added a few drops of yeast, and to No. 2 

 about the same amount of yeast, together with five drops of venom. Both test 

 tubes were next corked with care, so as to exclude any bubbles of air. and the 



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