THE PHYSIOLOGICAL ACTION OF SNAKE-VENOMS 171 
limbs have a difficulty in supporting it. It is soon attacked by 
nausea, vomiting and dyspnoea ; it rests its head upon the ground, 
raises it, trying to get breath, and carries its hand to its mouth as 
if in order to pluck a foreign body from its throat. It totters upon 
its limbs, and les down upon its side with its face against the 
ground. Ptosis increases, and complete asphyxia soon supervenes. 
The heart continues to beat for some time after respiration has 
ceased, and then stops in diastole. 
Cadaveric rigidity very rapidly sets in, and persists for a long 
time, even after putrefaction has commenced. During the last 
moments of life the pupil remains very sensitive; the animal 
appears to retain unimpaired its sense of hearing and sensibility 
to pain. The electric excitability of the muscles of the face per- 
sists, but that of those of the limbs and body almost entirely 
disappears. The application of volta-faradic currents from the 
nape to the diaphragm produces no respiratory movement when 
asphyxia begins to manifest itself. The sphincters of the bladder 
and anus relax after a few spasms, which, in case of males, fre- 
quently provoke the ejaculation of semen; the urine and feces 
immediately escape. 
The autopsy reveals slight hemorrhagic cedema at the point of 
inoculation, and hyperemia of all the viscera, especially of the liver 
and spleen, with, very frequently, small haemorrhagic patches on 
the surface of these organs, and on that of the intestine and 
kidneys. The serous membranes, especially the meninges, endo- 
cardium, pleuræ, and peritoneum, exhibit ecchymoses; the lungs 
are besprinkled with small infarcts, the more numerous the slower 
the intoxication. The blood remains fluid and laccate. 
In poisoning by the venoms of VipERIDÆ, the hemorrhagic 
phenomena appear at the outset, and are more intense. Death is 
always preceded by a period of asphyxia, indicating that the bulbar 
nuclei of the pneumogastric nerve have become affected. At the 
autopsy, however, the blood, instead of remaining fluid, is always 
