5() PHYSIOLOGY AND TOXICOLOGY 



of which the fangs had entered ol^liquely, both teeth taking effect. There was 

 more serum than usual in the dorsal sac, through which the weapons passed, and 

 their track was marked by a little darkening of the neighboring muscles. 



In twenty-four hours the muscular parts about the bite were almost diffluent, 

 ■while the rest of the frog had no odor, or any other sign of putrefaction. 



Experiment. — A large snake, from which I had in vain attempted to extract venom, 

 was secured in the snake-box as usual. Before releasing it, I placed a small frog, 

 about four or five inches long, in its mouth, so that when it bit, which it did 

 fiercely enough, the fang entered the belly. Slight local quivering of the nearer 

 muscles, and some convulsive extensions of the hind legs, were the only marked 

 signs, and no notable changes in the pupil was perceived until death took place, when 

 it dilated. At the close of sixty-two minutes, neither voluntary or reflex motions 

 could be elicited. 



P. M. Seclion.—T\\Q wound exhibited no local evidences of poisoning. The aper- 

 ture in the skin was small, and but one fang had entered. In passing through, or 

 out of the sub-cuticular abdominal walls, the fang tore these structures, so as to make 

 a distinct opening, through which a little serum from the dorsal sac had passed, and 

 carrying with it a little blood, had found its way into the peritoneal cavity. None 

 of the abdominal viscera were transfixed. The ventricle of the heart beat only 

 for fifteen minutes after it was exposed. The auricles beat feebly for one hour and 

 forty minutes after this period. The nervous irritability was extinct everywhere 

 thirty minutes after voluntary and reflex movement ceased, wdiile the muscular 

 irritability lasted but half an hour longer, and was thus entirely absent when the 

 auricles of the heart were still pulsating. The blood in the heart clotted on exposure. 



Experiment. — A small snake was teased until it struck a frog of medium size, and 

 was itself so caught that it hung for a moment, when I drew the frog out by pulling 

 on the string with which I had secured it. Upon inspection, it seemed that the fang 

 had struck upon the spine. On being released, the frog appeared very uneasy, and 

 for ten or twelve minutes was incessantly leaping about in the glass vessel in which 

 it had been placed. At the close of half an hour, the frog became suddenly quiet, 

 and shortly after was attacked with a general quivering of the muscles, followed by 

 the loss of volitional control. Slight reflex acts were still capable of being pro- 

 duced, when the limbs wpre violently stimulated by mechanical means, but at the 

 close of an hour from the period of poisoning, these also ceased, the eyelids became 

 motionless when touched, and the frog being considered dead, was opened. 



P. M. Section.— One fang was found to have entered the spine, and slightly 

 wounded the medulla, which was rather too much injected with blood, but other- 

 wise unaltered in structure. All the remaining viscera were healthy, and the heart 

 was still acting with all its cavities as late as two hours and a half after the poison- 

 ing, when the observation stopped for a time. Four hours later, the organ had 

 ceased to pulsate, and was only possessed of a slight localized irritability under 

 stimulus. The blood was well coagulated. 



The above quoted instances were the only cases of rapid death which I was called 

 upon to observe in this class of animals. Their discussion will occupy us at another 

 time. 



