OP THE VENOM OF THE RATTLESNAKE. 59 



was more dilTicult than to ascertain whether the minute amount of blood present 

 was coaguhxted or not. Both lungs were gorged with blood, and the intestines 

 were dotted with specks of extravasated blood, although no free blood was found 

 in the intestinal canal. 



The cases above quoted illustrate nearly every peculiarity of the eflects of the 

 venom upon batrachia, whether affecting them rapidly or slowly. 



It is necessary to the completion of this study, that we recount, also, the manner 

 in which the dried venom of the Crotalus acted upon these cold-blooded animals. 

 In one respect its action is undoubtedly peculiar. 



I have already alluded, in several instances, to the dried venom of the Crotalus. 

 The specimen used in the following experiments was given to me by Prof. Leidy, 

 who received it from my friend Prof. Wm. A. Hammond. It was obtained in 

 Kansas, in the autumn of 1857, by a process similar to that which I have described 

 on page 28. It had been allowed to dry into thin yellow scales, and was preserved 

 in this condition in a small bottle, not very well secured from the air. 



Prof Christison had already stated that cobra poison, fourteen years old, was still 

 effective. Mangili' had ascertained the same of viper poison eighteen months old. 



Orfila,- in recounting the experiments of the author last named, observes that 

 they proved contradictory of the statements of Fontana,^ an assertion which is only 

 partially correct, since the learned Abbe distinctly states that viper poison is active 

 after being preserved for several years in the cavity of a dry fang. He adds, 

 moreover, that the powdered and dried venom had been kept by him for several 

 months without loss of its power, and he also adduces E-edi's* experience to the 

 same effect. At the close of these statements he remarks, however, that the 

 poison may lose its potency by being kept, and that this took place frequently 

 when he attempted to preserve it longer than ten months. As we shall have occa- 

 sion to see, this is not the only instance where the learned Abbe has been misquoted 

 and misunderstood. Few authors of such merit as Fontana have had so little justice 

 at the hands of those who have followed them, and tliis remark applies not alone 

 to his work on the Viper, but to his researches on Ticunas, and to other labors, 

 many of the results of which have been assiduously re-discovered by more modern 

 observers. 



Experiment. Poisoning hy Dried Venom. — Temperature 79° F. A frog of middle 

 size received in the muscles of the back a small quantity of dried venom. An un- 

 envenomed wound of corresponding size was inflicted upon the other side of the 

 spine. On inspection, twenty-one hours after, the frog was found seated and quiet. 

 During half an hour no respiration occurred. Upon touching the eye, the frog 

 breathed once and moved its entire body, after which no further motion could be 

 provoked, and the animal seemed to be dead. 



P. M. Section. — On comparison, the two wounds were so much alike, that no dif- 



' Maugili, Annates de Chimie et de Pliysique, Fevricr, 1817, from Gioruale di Fisica Chimica, etc., 

 vol. ix. p. 458. 

 ^ Orfila, Traitc de Toxicologie, t. ii. p. 852. 

 3 Fontana, vol. i. Chapter XXII. p. 65. 

 * Redi, see also Russell, p. G3. 



