VENOMS IN THE ANIMAL SERIES 283 
from a couple of bees, by crushing the posterior extremity of 
the body in 1 c.c. of water, is sufficient to kill a mouse or a sparrow. 
Death supervenes in a few minutes from respiratory asphyxia, 
as in the case of intoxication by the venom of Colubrine snakes 
(Cobra). In the blood-vessels and in the heart the blood is black 
and remains fluid. It therefore appears that this venom contains a 
very active newrotoxin. 
The phenomena of intoxication caused by the venom of these 
insects are, as a rule, slight, being limited to an acute pain, accom- 
panied by a zone of cedema and burning itching. Sometimes 
however, when the stings are in the eyelids, lips, or tongue, they 
produce alarming and even fatal results, as shown by the following 
incident :— 
On September 26, 1890, a young girl of Ville-d’Avray was 
eating grapes in the woods of Fausse-Repose, when she inadver- 
tently swallowed a wasp. The unfortunate girl was stung in the 
back of the throat, and the wound became so rapidly inflamed that, 
in spite of the attentions of a doctor, she died in an hour from 
suffocation, in the arms of her friends. 
Phisalix' has studied the physiological action of bee-venom on 
sparrows inoculated either by the sting of the insect, or with an 
aqueous solution obtained by crushing the glands. In both cases 
a local effect, paralysis of the part inoculated, is first produced ; 
this is followed by convulsions, which may last for several hours ; 
the final stage is marked by coma and respiratory trouble, which 
ends in death. ; 
After being heated for fifteen minutes at 100° C. the venom 
has no further local action; the general phenomena are merely 
diminished. If heated at 100° C. for thirty minutes, the venom 
ceases to cause convulsions, but remains stupefactive. Exposure 
for fifteen minutes to a temperature of 150° C. renders it completely 
inert. 
' Comptes rendus de V Académie des Sciences, July 25, 1890. 
