POISONOUS SNAKES OF NORTH AMERICA. 465 



the phenomena than in the results of the experiments themselves. But 

 it would be a thankful task for an experienced physiologist to correlate 

 all the facts, to eliminate possible errors, to reexperiment where there 

 may be doubt as to the facts, and to weigh the evidence impartially 

 for and against the various explanations. His work would not have 

 to be confined to the works already mentioned, for the very next year 

 there appeared another independent treatise of considerable importance. 



In 1889 the French Academy of Medicine, in Paris, awarded the 

 Orfila inize for 1888 to M. Kaufmann, professor of physiology at the 

 veterinary school at Alfort, in recognition of his studies of the venom 

 of the common viper of France, Vipera aspis.* Kaufmann's work is for 

 the greater part a study of the action of the poison of the viper upon 

 the nerves, the circulation, and the tissues, and of certain chemical 

 antidotes upon the venom. It corroborates that of his predecessors, 

 an^l shows the similarity of action of the viper venom to the crotalus 

 venom, but it also contains several valuable new observations and new 

 discoveries. 



I have said that Mitchell has already called attention to the difl'er- 

 ence between the rapid and slow j)oisoning. Feoktistow made similar 

 observations, but Kaufmann has emphasized it still more, and in ]>art 

 based his study upon this difference. His experiments, to a greater 

 extent than his predecessors', were separately directed ui)on ascertain- 

 ing the results of the injection of the venom directly into the circula- 

 tion and those following only its hyi^odermic application to the tissues. 

 The results deserve a closer examination here. 



Injected directly into the veins of the animals experimented upon, 

 the venom produces its effects with almost lightning rapidity, consist- 

 ing in nervous, circulatory, respiratory, and digestive disturbances. 

 The nervous disturbances consist of a primary excitation of very short 

 duration, followed by a drowsiness, which lasts until death; the intel- 

 lectual faculties are not impaired for a long while, but the general sensi- 

 bility, as well as the voluntary and reflex movements, are rapidly 

 affected. The circulatory disturbances consist in an enormous lowering 

 of the arterial tension, due to a considerable vascular dilatation, princi- 

 pally in the abdominal digestive viscera; in a considerable acceleration 

 of the pulse, and in a very great feebleness of the blood waves propelled 

 by the heart. The respiration and calorification do not undergo j)ro- 

 found alterations, only a slight diminution of their activity being^ 

 observed. The conclusion is reached that the death which follows the 

 introduction of the venom into the circulation must be attributed to 

 gastrointestinal apoplexy and the stupefying action exercised directly 

 upon the nervous system. This is in confirmation of Feoktistow's 

 views. 



The hypodermic injections produce both general systemic effects 

 identical with the above, due to the absorption of the po230u. into the 



' Dn veuin do la vipere. Mem. Acad. MM., xxxvi, 1889, and separate. 

 H. Mis. 184, pt. 2 30 



