26 Professor Halford. 



What is the Poison? 



This is a difficult question to answer, but it must be 

 attacked. The most reliable opinions are those of Drs. 

 Weir Mitchell and E. T. Reichert of Philadelphia, and 

 those of Dr. C. J. Martin and Mr. J. MoGarvie Smith 

 of Sydney. Weir Mitchell and Reichert say : 



(1) " Venom bears, in some respects, a strong resem- 

 blance to the saliva of other vertebrates. 



(2) "The active principles are contained in the 

 liquid parts only. 



(3) " Venoms may be dried and preserved indefinitely 

 in this condition, but with a very slight impairment 

 of their toxicity. In solution of glycerine, they will 

 also probably keep for any length of time. 



(4) " There probably exist in all venoms representa- 

 tives of two classes of proteids, globulins and peptones, 

 which constitute their toxic elements ; the former may 

 be represented by one or more distinct principles." 



Drs. C. J. Martin and McGarvie Smith thus sum up 

 their results on investigating the venom of the Austra- 

 lian black snake : " The products of the secretion of 

 the epithelial cell of the gland are hetero-, proto-, and 

 deutero-albumoses, and no ferment." " Our conception 

 of the formation of these albumoses in the venom-gland 

 of the snake is the following : The cell, by a vital 

 process, directly exercises a hydrating influence on the 

 albumins supplied to it by the blood, the results of 

 which influence are the albumoses, which we find in 

 venom. The difference between this process and the 

 digestion by pepsin or by anthrax bacilli is, that in the 

 case of the gland cells of the venom gland, the hydra- 

 tiori stops short at the albumose stage, and is not 

 continued so as to form peptone, as is the case with the 

 others (stomach and pancreas) mentioned. That the 



