The Zoologist — NcatEMBER, 1869. 1891 



Before recording Dr. Fayrer's experiment, with reference to the 

 above, T will here quote a very interesting paragraph from the ' Micro- 

 scopical Journal,' by Mr. G. B. Ilolford, of Australia, as to the effect 

 of snake-poison on the blood. 



" The melancholy accident* which so lately happened with the 

 cobra-di-capella induced me to make some experiments and obser- 

 vations upon the action of the reptiles' poison, and they have proved 

 so eminently interesting that I ain induced to send you an epitome of 

 them. 

 " I have to state, that when a person is mortally bitten by a cobra- 

 di-capella, molecules of living germinal matter are thrown into the 

 blood and speedily grow into cells, and as rapidly multiply, so that in 

 a few hours millions upon millions are produced, at the expense (as 

 far as I can at present see) of the oxygen absorbed into the blood 

 during inspiration ; hence the gradual increase and ultimate extinc- 

 tion of combustion and chemical change in every other part of the 

 body, followed by coldness, sleepiness, insensibility, slow breathing 

 and death. The cells, which thus render in so short a time the blood 

 unfit to support life, are circular, with a diameter on an average of 

 ttVjt of an inch : they contain a nearly round nucleus of ^wo of an 

 inch in breadth, which, when further magnified, is seen to contain 

 still more minute spherules of living germinal matter. In addition to 

 this, the application of magenta reveals a minute nucleus spot at some 

 part of the circumference of the cell : this, besides its size, distin- 

 guishes from the white pus or lymph corpuscle. 



" Thus, then, it would seem that as the vegetable cell requires for 

 its growth inorganic food and the liberation of oxygen, so the animal 

 cell required for its growth organic food and the absorption of oxygen: 

 its food is present in the blood, and it meets the oxygen in the lungs ; 

 thus the whole blood becomes disorganized, and nothing is found 

 after death but dark fluid blood, the fluidity indicating its loss of 

 fibrine, and the dark colour its want of oxygen, which it readily 

 absorbs on exposure after death. 



" Let it not be thought that microscopic particles are unable to 

 produce such great and rapid changes. It is well known, and I have 

 frequently timed it with my class, that a teaspoonful of human saliva 

 will, when shaken with a little quantity of decoction of starch, convert 



* Evidently alluding to Mr. Drummond's case of misplaced reliance on antidotes 

 referred to in Col. Shavers' account. 



