76 PHYSIOLOGY AND TOXICOLOGY 



CHAPTER VI I. 



ACTION OF THE VENOM ON THE TISSUES AND FLUIDS. 



In this section, the subject of absorption, hitherto deferred, naturally presents 

 itself at the outset. 



The most important of the questions raised in this connection, regards the power 

 of the stomach to absorb the venom of serpents, a question to which Redi^ gave a 

 negative reply, founded on the experiments of his viper catcher, and upon one of 

 his own on a kid, to which he gave internally the venom of four vipers. Fontana,- 

 on the other hand, took the affirmative, owing to a single experiment on a pigeon, 

 down the throat of which he poured nearly thirty drops of venom, killing it thus 

 in six minutes.^ 



Prof. Mangili^ has since repeated these experiments, and arrived at the conclu- 

 sion that the venom of the viper is harmless, when taken internally. These results 

 were founded on the most satisfactory data, and leave no room to doubt that the 

 venom is innocuous when thus administered. Before and since his experiments, 

 many observers have been found bold enough to taste, and even to swallow, the 

 venom of serpents. Thus, Mead and his assistants tasted the venom of the viper, 

 EusselP tasted the poison of the Cobra, but does not seem to have swallowed it, 

 although he has credit in some of the books for having done so. 



In our own country, experience upon this matter is limited. Harlan,^ who gave 

 the venom internally to a single young dog, without efiect, and Jeter,' who states 

 that when given to fasting cats and dogs, it causes sickness, and is followed by the 

 usual consequences of snake bite, are tlie only authorities, if we except an extra- 

 ordinary statement made by Burnett" upon the authority of another person, whose 



' Francis Redi, Nobilis Aretini Experimenta. Amstelodanii, 1G75. Ex. Italico Latinate Donata, 

 p. 14. 



Also, Celsus, who says of the venom of snakes, "Non gustu, sed in vulnere nocent ;" and Lucan before 

 him, puts into the mouth of Cato "Morsu virus habent, et fatum dente minantur; pocula morte 

 carent." Fontana, vol. ii. p. 323. 



^ Fontana, vol. ii. p. 32 L 



^ Fontana liad previously arrived at the negative eouclusiou from experiments upon dogs, who took, 

 however, very small doses. Vol. i. jx ,58. 



' Mangili, quoted in Orfila, Tox. Gen., vol. ii. p. 852, from 'II Gionialo di Fisica Chemica, etc. Vol. 

 i.x. p. 458 (ISU). 



* Russell, p. 63. 



6 Harlan, Physiological Researches, p. 50L 



' Jeter, p. 20. 



» Burnett, Proc. Boston Soc. of Nat. Hist., vol. iv. p. 323. 



