72 VENOMOUS SNAKES AND THE PHENOMENA OF THEIR VENOMS 



each species. However, certain exceptions must be expected, as a strict 

 uniformity does not rule out biological phenomena. For these reasons the 

 figures given by different investigators do not quite agree, yet they agree 

 sufficiently to furnish us with the approximate toxicity of each venom. 



The minimum lethal doses of the venoms of various species of snake are 

 given in table i. The figures indicate the quantities of dried venom in gram 

 per kilogram of the body-weight of the animals. In order to make compari- 

 son of the quantities given by different authors in different standards pos- 

 sible, these are reduced to the uniform standard and unit, unless special 

 statement is made to the contrary. 



Certain remarkable facts will be noticed by scrutinizing the effects of 

 minimum lethal doses of various venoms upon different classes of animals 

 by different modes of administration. The very high toxicity of the marine- 

 snake venoms, as compared with that exhibited by most of the elapine-snake 



TABLE i. 



