VENOM IS DIGESTED. 365 



pancreatic juices. Some are acted upon by the gastric juices ; 

 others, which these juices have no power to neutrahze, are 

 rendered harmless by the pancreatic fluids. 



Venom is Digested. 



Snake venom when swallowed is completely digested by the 

 digestive juices. It has been frequently demonstrated that the 

 secretion of the Pancreas, known as the pancreatic juice, which 

 pours into the Duodenum during the process of digestion, 

 entirely destroys snake venom. This pancreatic juice, when 

 taken from an animal and mixed with snake poison, will com- 

 pletely destroy its toxic or poisonous properties if heated to the 

 normal temperature of the body. In fact, the venom is digested 

 and chemically changed. Careful analysis of the excreta of 

 animals fed with snake poison has failed to show any trace of 

 venom, therefore it must have been destroyed by the digestive 

 juices, or else absorbed into the blood unchanged, in which case 

 it would have set up characteristic symptoms of snake venom 

 poisoning. Very young animals are not immune. 



It is, however, unsafe for human beings to swallow venom, 

 as the digestive organs of the majority in civilized communities 

 are in anything but a healthy state, and it is quite possible a 

 state of catarrh of the inner walls of the stomach or intestines 

 may exist. Then, again, if the digestive organs be weak, the 

 gastric and pancreatic juices may not be sufficiently abundant 

 or concentrated to digest the venom, which would pass down 

 into the intestines, and may possibly get absorbed into the blood. 



If the stomach be ulcerated or otherwise inflamed, snake 

 venom is capable of finding its way into the blood through these 

 inflamed surfaces. In this case it will have the same effect as 

 if injected direct into the blood. 



In most cases of serious illness the digestive apparatus is 

 rendered torpid to a greater or lesser degree. This means that 

 the Liver, Pancreas, and gastric glands secrete little or no di- 

 gestive fluid; consequently, if venom is swallowed at such a 

 time, it is either only partially neutralized, or not acted upon 

 at all. If it should pass the stomach and enter the small 

 intestines without being previously digested by these glandular 

 secretions, especially the pancreatic juice, it will probably be 

 sucked up by the tiny mouths known as Villi, millions of which 



