ANIMAL POISONS. 537 



the salts of the pus, consisting of sulphates, phosphates, and chlo- 

 rides, and also a notable quantity of albumen, coagulated by ni- 

 tric acid or heat. With ammonia pus forms a kind of soap. 

 When agitated with ether and the mixture left at rest, it was di- 

 vided into two strata. The undermost was clear and transparent, 

 and contained the salts and albumen of the pus ; the uppermost, 

 thick and thready, contained the solution of the fatty matters and 

 the globules. When examined by the microscope it is found to 

 contain a great n amber of globules, having a diameter varying 

 from j^th to 1F Vs th of an inch. When treated by acetic acid 

 and examined by the microscope, it was found that the outermost 

 coat of the globules had been dissolved, leaving the internal 

 nucleus, which often subdivided itself into several smaller glo- 

 bules- It dissolved completely, though slowly, in ammonia. 

 Becquerel gives the following characters to enable us to dis- 

 tinguish mucus from pus. 



Mucus. Pus. 



1. Viscid. 1. Viscid and thick. 



2. Transparent or opaline. 2. Opaque, yellowish-white. 



3. Neutral. 3. Alkaline. 



4. Very little fatty matter. 4. Much fatty matter. 



5. Very little altered by am- 5. Made gelatinous by am- 

 monia, monia, and finally dissolved. 



6. Charred in a spirit-lamp, giv- 6. Burns in a spirit-lamp with 

 ing out occasionally a slight a lively flame. 



flame. 



7. Before the microscope, com- 7. Do. Globules of a diame- 

 posed of thin plates, with oc- ter from 7^5 o^ 1 to i-sW n 

 casional globules. of an inch in diameter. 



CHAPTER XXIII. 



OF ANIMAL POISONS. 



SEVERAL animals are furnished with liquid juices of a poison- 

 ous nature, which, when poured into fresh wounds, occasion the 

 disease or death of the wounded animal. Serpents, bees, scor- 

 pions, spiders, are well known examples of such animals. The 

 chemical properties of the*se poisonous juices deserve peculiar at- 



