The Action of the Venom on the Blood. 9 



0'05 c.crii. (=Jft grain), in one hundred and four and one 

 hundred and five seconds respectively. All four rabbits 

 weighed over 51b. 



" The above experiments show a marked uniformity 

 between the toxic powers of these two venoms." 



The comparative weaker powers of the venom of 

 the Australian snakes having been disproved, I now 

 proceed to the observations I have made. 



The Action of the Venom on the Blood. 



In May 1852, I being then House Surgeon to the 

 Westminster Hospital, a man was brought in at about 

 11 a.m. by two friends, who said he had been bitten by 

 an adder which he had bought at Butler's Covent- 

 Garderi. He looked stupefied ; his face was swollen, 

 the tongue also was greatly swollen, and partly hang- 

 ing oat of his mouth : there was also great oedema of 

 the subrnucous tissues of the mouth and throat. I 

 naturally looked about these parts for the bite, but to 

 my surprise was told he had been bitten on the index 

 ringer of the right hand ; I saw two minute punctures. 

 I sent him to bed. Leeches, fomentations, and purg- 

 ing relieved the oedema, and by the evening he was 

 comparatively well. I have omitted however to say 

 that, soon after his admission he vomited, and felt pain 

 at the pit of the stomach. The next morning, on 

 going round the wards, the nurse told me the man 

 complained of pain and stiffness of the arm, and pain 

 in the axilla. On taking off his nightshirt, I found 

 swollen veins running up to the axilla, and to the 

 corresponding side of the thorax, with evident ecchy- 

 mosis of the whole of these regions. Subsequently, these 

 parts underwent all the successive colour-stages of 



