118 SIR JOSEPH FAYRER, K.C.S.I., ETC., 



infusion was discontinued, when four times the volume of blood 

 the animal carried in his normal state had passed through it, 

 and every trace of the viperine poison, administered by in- 

 travenous injection, had been thoroughly removed. Still with 

 blood completely free from poison, the paralysis of the nerve 

 centres remained the same as before the infusion. The blood- 

 pressure, artificially raised during the infusion, fell at once again, 

 when it ceased and the vessels named were closed. The blood 

 rushed again into the paralysed veins of the abdomen, leaving 

 the rest of the body anaemic, and the animal perished. 



6 The blood-changes, that have given rise to the theory of 

 blood-poisoning, are very deceiving, and can all be explained on 

 the ground of vaso-motor paralysis. The blood of a poisoned 

 animal becomes almost stagnant in the paralysed and immensely 

 engorged veins of the abdomen, to which the greater part of it 

 is drawn. It becomes saturated with carbonic acid and assumes 

 a very dark colour, but it speedily parts with the acid, and readily 

 absorbing oxygen becomes bright red again, when slightly beaten 

 in the air. No changes could be detected by Feoktistow in the 

 blood-corpuscles under the strongest immersion systems. Only 

 Bizzosero's blood-plates were not present in the usual numbers. 

 The alleged discovery of Weir Mitchell of blood corpuscles in a 

 disorganised condition, Feoktistow ascribes to his using alcohol 

 immersions that give deceiving pictures. 



7 It is only where the snake poison remains for some time in a 

 concentrated form in contact with the blood corpuscles, as it does 

 at and around the bitten part, that the stroma becomes dissolved 

 and the hsemaglobin is set free, but this effect is nothing peculiar 

 to snake poison, as it can be brought about readily by other 

 non-poisonous substances and even by the blood of other species 

 of animals. 



8 The haemorrhages that almost invariably take place under 

 the influence of viper poison, but are also exceptionally observed 

 in Australia in colubrine-poisoning, have their cause likewise 

 in vaso-motor paralysis. The blood stream is retarded and the 

 capillaries are dilated, both by the direct action of the poison 

 and by venous engorgement. A capillary tube in its normal 

 state, just wide enough to allow the blood coi'puscles to pass 

 through in a single row but in the expanded condition not wide 

 enough for two abreast, becomes blocked through the corpuscles 

 being wedged against each other. At the same time the stomata 

 in the capillary membrane, through which only leucocytes can 

 force their way in the normal state, become larger and permit 

 the less elastic red corpuscles to pass out by diapedesis. Where 

 the venous engorgement is very great, as in the abdomen, the 

 capillary membrane bursts, and side by side with diapedesis 

 there is capillary bleeding" and the hasmorrhage becomes moi'e 

 or less profuse. The process of diapedesis has been minutely 



