28 Professor Halford. 



with which it can be destroyed, its action is far more 

 prolonged. My belief is, that the living blood and 

 tissues resist the action of the poison, but that at last 

 they fail to maintain their preservative power ; that 

 the venom, once introduced into the circulation, 

 continues its action after the temperature of the body 

 has fallen, and continues till what should have been in 

 normal blood (fibrin), is destroyed, its place being 

 taken up by the large white cells I have described. 

 This, on my part, is purely hypothetical, but it is 

 the best I can say now. Doubtless it will be in the 

 power of future investigators to confirm or destroy 

 these fancies, and it will be a great result to our know- 

 ledge when something definite has been arrived at. I 

 have the greatest hopes in Dr. C. J. Martin's future 

 investigations. 



Brainard's Description of Poisoned Blood. 



Not being able to refer to " The Smithsonian 

 Reports " of 1854, I extract the following from Nysten's 

 " Dictionaire de Medicine/' Paris 1858, which being 

 translated, reads as follows: "Dr. Brainard, of the 

 State of Illinois, in causing pigeons to be bitten by 

 rattle snakes, found : 



(1) " Change of form of the red corpuscles, by their 

 assuming a spherical condition. 



(2) " Abundance of white corpuscles grouped to- 

 gether in aggregated masses. 



(3) " Fluidity of the blood in the cavities of the 

 heart, resulting from the non-coagulability of the 

 fibrin. 



