458 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1893. 



In the meantime organic chemistry, physiology, and bacteriology 

 made miinei)se strides forw^ard. The deadly work of the microbes 

 began gradually to be understood, and their action in the process of 

 putrefaction, as well as their role in many of the diseases which in their 

 symptoms recalled those of snake poisoning, became known or 

 suspected; the ptomaines and the leucomaines were discovered; and 

 the chemists in their improved laboratories became enabled to deal 

 with tlie j)roteids, to separate them, and to classify them. 



o^ew theories as to the nature of the powerful poison were the 

 necessary result; some thought the toxic property due to the jiresence 

 of leucomaines, or alcaloid bodies ; others x)referred to regard the fatal 

 results as due to the work of some bacillus; others maintained its 

 albuminoid origin ; while others again regarded a combination of all 

 these causes as the true solution of the question. 



While works dealing rationally and scientifically with this theme 

 were few formerly and far between, one important discovery has fol- 

 lowed closely upon another during the last ten years, and, even at the 

 moment of publishing this, the writei* is anxiously scanning each new 

 number of the various journals, magazines, and proceedings, for fear 

 that the latest mail may bring some important information that might 

 make it necessary to modify or even rewrite this account, lest it should 

 become antiquated even before it reaches the hand of the reader. 



Before giving a resume of these late discoveries, the methods of work 

 by which they have been obtained will be briefly discussed. 



Attention is directed at the very outset to the fact that the poison 

 of the various kinds of snakes (we speak only of that of the elapoid 

 and viperoid snakes, as the poison of the opisthoglyph snakes has not 

 yet been investigated in the same manner) differs a great deal both in 

 external or physical qualities as well as in chemical composition, and 

 chat the poisoning occasioned by its injection often shows very marked 

 symptomatic differences. Within certain limits these differences are 

 only those of degree, and it will be possible in the following to make 

 the statements somewhat general, though in the details there may be 

 slighter deviations according to the kind of snake we have to deal 

 with. 



The first thing, of course, is to obtain the poison. The investiga- 

 tors prefer the fresh secretion, if it can be had, for although drietl or 

 kept in alcohol the venom is not made innocuous, yet even a slight 

 modification of its properties is to be avoided if possible. A sufficient 

 number of live snakes is therefore highly desirable (Weir Mitchell at one 

 time had at least one hundred in his laboratory), for the quantity of the 

 fluid which each snake yields at any one time is comparatively small. 



The methods for obtaining the venom are somewhat various. To 

 kill the snake in order to extract it from the glands directly is a waste 

 of material well to be avoided. The process of allowing it to bite into 

 a soft material from which it is afterwards extracted is open to the 



