GENERAL PROPERTIES AND ACTIONS OF THE VENOM. 67 



at intervals, so that the animals continued seriously affected until death finally 

 resulted. By means of both these poisons hemorrhages and self-digestion of 

 the stomach were produced. The self-digestion was not considerable in the 

 case of potassium-cyanide poisoning, but it was marked when death was caused 

 by resorcin. Particularly in one case, where the poisoning extended over more 

 than 24 hours, the mucous membrane was so changed that it came away 

 entire from the muscular layers.* 



After death following the injection of venom the lungs always showed 

 more or less congestion and edema. These were the only invariable naked- 

 eye changes that we observed. At times liver, spleen, kidneys, and adrenals 

 showed congestion, but not very markedly and not invariably. Contrary to 

 the experience of Santesson, we never saw the slightest evidence of any local 

 disturbances. At the point of injection there was neither hemorrhage nor 

 swelling, or any other symptom of local effect. 



Santesson records these local symptoms in frogs, and in order to observe 

 whether they might be specific in these animals we injected frogs with doses of 

 both fresh and dried venom, and of strengths sufficient to kill in long, short, 

 and medium intervals of time, but in no case did we observe any lesions at the 

 place of injection, either before or after death. We were also unable to con- 

 firm Santesson's experience that the muscles at the site of injection become 

 softened and easily disintegrated, although we looked again and again for evi- 

 dence to this effect. 



In all the reports concerning the local effect of the bite of the Heloderma 

 in man, mention is made of the rapid appearance of swelling and hemorrhagic 

 discoloration of the skin at the site of injury. We found that when fresh 

 venom was injected subcutaneouslj^ into an animal, no swelling or hemorrhage 

 appeared at the site of injection; and when venom was injected intramus- 

 cularly, no hemorrhage or swelling was noted. These negative results were 

 obtained with venom collected in the usual manner, namely, by allowing the 

 animal to bite on a piece of soft rubber and collecting only the venom which 

 appeared between the rubber and the lower lip of the animal. In some other 

 experiments we collected venom by allowing the animals to chew small pieces 

 of sponge; the venom was squeezed and washed out of these sponges. The 

 venom thus obtained was injected subcutaneously into the ear of a rabbit and 

 into the tissue-pad of a rat's paw. Both of these animals developed marked 

 swellings at the site of inoculation, and later showed ecchymoses and hemor- 

 rhages in these areas. 



It is possible that the local symptoms — swelling and hemorrhage — result 

 from some buccal secretion of the Heloderma. They certainly are not caused 

 by the secretion of the true venom glands. It is impossible, however, to abso- 

 lutely rule out mechanical injury as a factor in causing the appearance of these 

 local symptoms when an individual is bitten by a Heloderma. The animal has 

 very powerful jaws and its bite would easily bruise a large area of flesh and 

 skin. When the animal bites it clings tenaciously, and in endeavoring to 

 extricate a wounded part the injury might easily be increased. 



*Cf. the paper by M. E, Rehfuss, which presents a more elaborate experimental study of these lesions. 



