348 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1893. 



secretion of the skin appeaie<l to be paiticularly distasteful to tlie 

 snake. Without reciting the various experiments in detail, the authors 

 state the more apparent phenomena accompanying them to be, (1) the 

 suspension of the respiration, which, in the main, occurs in a very few 

 minutes (thirteen minutes being the maximum in a toad) and may 

 liappen suddenly, or maybe preceded by a gradual sinking interrui)ted 

 by a deep breathing pause; (2) the cessation of reflex movements in the 

 bitten limb, while still persisting for some time in the rest of the body; 

 the excitements applied below the bitten point ceased almost immedi- 

 ately to be transmitted to the medulla and to show reflexes. This 

 alteration maintained itself local for some time, afterwards progressing 

 toward the periphery along the nerves of the wounded limb. The 

 general paralysis does not delay long in coming. It is but rarely 

 accomi)anied by convulsions. The heart continues to beat for a long- 

 while (in the toad) but its strength decreases gradually. The blood 

 revealed nothing notable under the spectroscope; as a matter of course 

 it had become venous at the suspension of the respiration. The rapid 

 changes which were observed at the wounded point are noteworthy; 

 the muscular tissue became livid and inexcitable. Death ensued 

 generally in half an hour, or less; in a toad it took place in twenty-six 

 minutes. The heart of a frog continued to beat for many hours after. 

 The authors then call attention to the interesting similarity between 

 the above symptoms and those accompanying the poisoning by the 

 cobra de capello, and finally state that they have made controlling- 

 experiments with innocuous snakes which did not have such efiect 

 upon the animals bitten. 



In a subsequent resume of this article* the same authors add that 

 the effects of the bite of the Malpolon are not to be feared by man. " It 

 seems," they say, " that the bite is only dangerous to reptiles, birds, 

 and small mammals (mice) ; young dogs have resisted the poison rather 

 well." 



Similar investigations and experiments were carried out about the 

 same time, or a little earlier (1882), ou an American species in Guana- 

 juato, Mexico, by Prof. A. Duges, who has published his notes concern- 

 ing Trimorphodonbiscutatus,f a snake belonging to a genus representa- 

 tives of which have been found along our Southern border. He gives 

 figures of his dissections, showing the venomous gland with its duct 

 supjilying the grooved posterior fangs with the poison. He records his 

 experience as follows : 



One day as I was admiriug the snake I saw liim seize a Cnemidophorus sexlineatua 

 [the striped swift, a lizard], at the middle of the body, advancing its jaws so as to 

 bring tlie coiner of the mouth in contact with the body of the lizard: for several 

 moments it chened (a rare occurrence in a snake) its victim without the latter mov- 

 ing, letting go after having killed it ; but at this juncture the saurian was swallowed 



* Archives Italiennes de Biologic, v, 1884, pp. 108-109. 

 t La Naturaleza, (Mexico), vi, 1884, pp. 145-148. 



