POISONS AND THEIR PREVENTION 195 



is satisfactory to know that heat-exposure for a 

 quarter of an hour to a temperature of from 577 

 to 777 Cent, entirely removes it, whilst its virulence 

 is greatly modified by submitting it for a longer 

 period, twenty-four hours, to a much lower tem- 

 perature, i.e. 37 Cent. It also gradually loses 

 its toxic properties eight days after it has been 

 collected, even when carefully shielded from light, 

 a feature which contrasts favourably with viper 

 venom, which can be kept for more than a year 

 and remains as active as when first derived from 

 the snake. We have seen also that its toxic pro- 

 perties invariably succumb to the processes of 

 - digestion, so that even if fashion or fad or adver- 

 tising speculators, backed by scientific names, were 

 to decree that a wealth of nourishment and support 

 was contained in raw eel "juice," and the edict 

 went out that it was a desirable and highly im- 

 portant article of invalid diet, the general public 

 may, according to its wont, innocently accept the 

 edict and in this case suffer no evil consequences. 



But another and very remarkable method of 

 mitigating the virulence of eel blood, and one 

 which so far has received no explanation, is 

 mentioned by Dr. Wehrmann, of Moscow, who 

 has been lately studying the character of this fish's 

 blood in Dr. Calmette's laboratory at the Pasteur 

 Institute at Lille. Dr. Wehrmann found that if 



