182 VENOMS 
(1) ACTION UPON THE LIVER. 
Whether we are dealing with the venoms of VIPERIDa or 
COLUBRID, the anatomo-pathological processes are alike, and the 
changes produced are more or less profound, according to the 
degree or the slowness of the intoxication. 
The liver is more affected than any other organ. In cases in 
which death has quickly followed the injection of the venom, the 
protoplasm of the cells is merely cloudy, or granular, and the 
granulations readily take a stain in their periphery, though the 
interior remains uncoloured. If, on the contrary, the animal has 
survived for some hours, the protoplasm becomes condensed in 
certain parts of the cell, leaving vacuoles, the limits of which 
are not well defined. A portion of the cellular protoplasm is 
necrosed and destroyed. In these cases the nuclei have already 
undergone a change; although their contours may be well defined, 
we discover in their interior only a very little chromatin in the 
form of small granulations, and the nuclear fluid takes a feeble 
stain with basic colours, since it contains a little chromatin in 
solution. 
When the protoplasm of the hepatic cells has suffered more 
pronounced lesions, the changes in the nuclei are also more marked ; 
the quantity of nuclear chromatin diminishes and _ slowly loses 
its property of taking stains, in proportion as the protoplasm of 
the hepatic cells undergoes necrosis; tinally, in the hepatic cell, 
there remains nothing more than a small quantity of granular proto- 
plasm without a nucleus (Nowak). 
In certain cases we find extensive areas of fatty degeneration, 
or small foci in which the hepatic tissue is absolutely destroyed. 
In the case of the dog it may even happen that the microscopic 
structure of the parenchyma has entirely disappeared. The arrange- 
ment of the hepatic cells in lobules can no longer be distinguished ; 
the trabeculæ are ruptured and broken asunder, and we find nothing 
more than a confused agglomeration of cells floating in the extra- 
vasated blood. 
