HAMORRHAGE INTO THE TISSUES. 369 
NATURE’S RESISTANCE. 
Nature sets up a resistance against all foreign substances 
when introduced into the body, endeavouring to overcome and 
cast them out again. In those cases where she fails, the dose 
has been too large, or the vitality and mechanism of the body 
is more or less impaired by disregard of the laws of hygiene. 
The habitual indulgence in alcohol is a potent factor in the 
breaking down of the natural inherent power of the body to 
withstand and overcome any form of disease or poisoning. 
Habitual moderate drinkers of alcoholic liquors succumb rapidly 
even to a small dose of snake venom—a dose not sufficient to 
produce serious symptoms in a non-drinker. Animals dosed 
with alcohol for a few months, given in regular doses, died 
rapidly when injected with a small dose of snake venom, showing 
clearly that alcohol destroys the inherent vital resistance to 
snake venom, as medical science informs us it does with all 
forms of disease or ordinary blood-poisoning. 
H#MORRHAGE INTO THE TISSUES. 
A characteristic action of Viperine venom is to cause he- 
motrrhage into the tissues in various parts of the body. A toxic 
property in the venom acts upon the walls of the capillary blood 
vessels, causing expansion of their cells, or, to put it in scientific 
terms, ‘a dissolution of their continuity.” This effect of the 
venom upon the walls of the blood vessels allows the blood to 
ooze through and into the tissues, causing purplish blue patches 
under the skin. The escape of blood through the walls of the 
capillaries is always greatest near the small arteries owing to 
the increased blood pressure at these places. The effect of 
Viperine venom upon the circulatory system seems to be three- 
fold—the red corpuscles are in most cases acted upon, causing 
them to release their hamoglobin or colouring matter, and to 
distort and alter their natural shape; the phagosytes or white 
blood corpuscles are more or less broken up; the cells composing 
the walls of the smaller blood vessels are caused to expand, 
allowing the blood to escape into the surrounding tissues. 
2B 
