OF THE VENOM OF THE RATTLESNAKE. 95 



ro.idily conceive how capillary ruptures may take place, and so give rise to trans- 

 udations of blood in any portion of the body. 



I have grouped together all the visceral lesions, because it seemed to me that, 

 however various the seat of the affection, it was, in all organs and thi'oughout 

 the tissues, alike in its character. In other words, owing to the changes in blood 

 or tissues, or both, extravasations are met with in the lungs, brain, kidneys, serous 

 membranes, intestines, and heart. As a result, we may have functional derange- 

 ment grafted on the main stem of the malady, and the accompaniments of bloody 

 serum in the affected cavities, bloody mucus in the intestinal canal, and bloody 

 urine in the bladder. 



Causation of Death in Acute and Chronic Crotdlus Poisoning. — Perhaps scarcely 

 one intelligent medical reader will have followed me thus far without arriving at 

 the conclusion that the venom of the Crotalus, like that of other snakes, is a septic 

 or putrefacient poison of astounding energy. This very obvious view has long been 

 held by toxicologists, and the cases and experiments of this paper assui'edly do not 

 weaken it. 



The rapid decomposition of the blood, and of the tissues locally acted upon by 

 the venom, leaves no doubt upon the matter, and makes it appai'ent that an 

 incipient putrefaction of this nature may so affect the blood as to destroy its power 

 to clot, and, perhaps, also to nourish the tissues through which it is urged. 



The alterations thus brought about are probably the results of a continued fermen- 

 tative change, which, begun by a small amount of poison, is gradually made to 

 involve in fatal change the whole mass of the circulating fluids. Like all fermen- 

 tations, however, the rapidity depends on temperature and on the amount of the 

 primary ferment. In one instance, a dog, struck by eight snakes, died in eighteen 

 minutes, and exhibited an uncoagulable blood. I am aware of no other case of 

 loss of coagulating power so rapid. It was rendered thus by the number of locali- 

 ties from which the ferment attacked the system. On the other hand, the frog, a 

 small animal, receives the same dose of venom as would have entered the tissues of 

 a larger animal, yet it resists the poison most remarkably, by virtue of its powers 

 as a cold-blooded creature, existing at the temperature of the atmosphere itself. 



Admitting, then, that the changes effected in the blood may be sufficient to 

 account for the fatal results in chronic cases of poisoning by Crotalus, are we justi- 

 fied in referring to similar causes the sudden deaths which sometimes take place in 

 small, or even larger 'animals, in whose tissues or fluids we can detect no change 

 whatsoever ? 



In the present state of this inquiry, the question scarcely admits of a positive 

 answer. It is clear that in acute cases, the s3'mptouis of depression are most marked, 

 and the heart and nerve centres are suddenly and fearfully enfeebled, so that their 

 irritability is lessened, and is finally lost earlier than occurs in other forms of death. 

 If now, we knew of no other property of the poison than this one, we could pro- 

 perly pause here, and regard the venom as having a specific influence on the heart, 

 and on the nervous irritability of some part of the cerebro-spinal centres, such as 

 charactei'izes certain of the better known poisons, such as corroval, woorara, upas, 

 opium, aconite, etc. Since, however, we are aware that serpent venom, after remain- 

 ing for a time in the body, has a specific power of attacking at least one element of 



