The Toxic Power of Snake Venom. 7 



by C. J. Martin and J. McGarvie Smith ; and the 

 second and third, Vol. XV, No. -t, 1893, Journal of 

 Physiology. Of these two papers, that of the Injection 

 of Black Snake Venom is the most important for our 

 present investigation. 



Mr. Martin, a few weeks back, visited me, bringing 

 some black snake venom. He brought also with him 

 a mind at the back of his retina, which is necessary 

 for all optical enquiry. He brought also youth, a 

 valuable adjunct, for he is only 28 years old. In 

 addition to these requisites, we have now microscopes 

 which will show us things clearly which we saw only 

 darkly in those other days. The microscope I used 

 originally was a magnificent Powell and Leland, and 

 my drawings were done with the camera lucida. The 

 glass I now use is Reichert's No. IA, and with the 

 apochromatic lenses and compensating eye-pieces, the 

 coloration of any dye that may be used is absolutely 

 perfect. 



The Toxic Power of Snake Venom. 



It has been, for a long time, the fashion to underrate 

 the power of the poison of Australian snakes, as 

 compared with that of the Indian cobra. In 1873 I 

 wrote " The death of a dog follows as rapidly after 

 the bite of an Australian venomous snake as after the 

 bite of a cobra;" and again, "Dr. J. Macbeth records 

 the deaths of twenty-nine dogs which had been bitten 

 by cobras, and to which no remedy had been applied. 

 The average time between the bite and death in these 

 cases is three hours and twenty-three minutes ; the 

 shortest, eleven minutes. I find that two hours and 



fifteen minutes is the average time between the bite 



B 2 



