POISONOUS SNAKES OF NORTH AMERICA. 463 



by the Najhhv or cobras (and the nearly rehited Ehipidw) on the other, 

 as will be shown further on. 



Simultaneously with Mitchell and Reichert's report there appeared in 

 England a couple of ailicles by Dr. E. Norris Wolfenden of a scarcely 

 less import, he, however, having had the benefit of the preliminary report 

 by his American precursors. He published them in the Cambridge 

 Journal of Physiology under the common title " On the nature and 

 action of the venom of poisonous snakes," tho first one being a treatise 

 on ''The Venom of the Indian Cobra, Naja tripudians,^^ the second "A 

 Note upon the Venom of the Indian Viper, Dahoia russelii.''^ 



Wolfenden's results are in the main the same as those of Mitchell and 

 Eeichert. Pursuing a different method of subdividing the proteids there 

 are some differences in detail, which mean very little so fiir as the general 

 result is concerned, but there is also one difi'igieement as to the nature 

 and the nomenclature of the dialyzable portion. Mitchell referred it, 

 as we have seen, to the peptones, but Wolfenden maintains that it can 

 not possibly be a jieptone sint;e it is precipitated by acetic acid and 

 potassic ferrocyanide. He, on the other hand, refers it to thealbumoses, 

 and in his analysis of the daboia poison he names it ^'•alhumose or syn- 

 tonin.^^ This is therefore practically the same as Mitchell's venom peptone. 



Wolfenden found in the cobra an overwhelming quantity of the 

 globulin, but scarcely any albumose; in the daboia, on the other- 

 hand besides the globulin, a certain quantity, proportions not given, of 

 "albumose or syntonin," which seems to be more difficult to dialyze than 

 the crotalus proteid of the same class. As will be seen, Mitchell's con- 

 clusions were amply and independently confirmed. 



The very latest studies of the chemical nature of the venom are those 

 of Dr. C. J. Martin and Mr. J. M'Garvie Smith, of Sydney, Australia, 

 who have successfully investigated the poison of the Australian black 

 snake, Pseudecliis porphyriacus, a very dangerous snake related to the 

 Indian cobra.* Tbeir results corroborate in the main those of their 

 predecessors, and in their endeavor to identify the various proteids 

 which constitute the Aenom, they successfully separated three proteids, 

 viz., "one an albumin, and the other two albumoses. The albumin is 

 not virulent, but the two albumoses (corresponding to proto and hetero- 

 albumoses of Kiihne) are extremely poisonous. They each have the 

 same physiological action and this is the same as that ]>roduced by the 

 venom itself." 



It is one of the great merits of Mitchell and Reichert's work that 

 they undertook to test directly upon the venom the numerous chemical 

 antidotes which from time to time have been suggested or from their 

 known action on similar substancesseemed to give promise of favorable 

 results. It was found that many are worthless, that in fact only a few 



* Proc. Roy. Soc. U. S. Wales, Aug. 3, 1892, and Journal of Physiology, xv, 1893, 

 (p. 380). See also W. D. Halliburton's paper on " Snake Poison" in Science Pro- 

 gress, 11, Sep, 1894, pp. 1-9. 



