1892 The Zoologist— Novembek, 1869. 



the whole of the latter into sugar in less than one minute. If ptyaline, 

 the active principle of saliva, exerts this power at most in a few 

 minutes, then surely the active principal of the secretion of the ser- 

 pent's poison-gland may exert an infinitely greater power in as many 

 hours. It results, then, that a person dies slowly asphyxiated by 

 deprivation of oxygen, in whatever other way the poison may also act, 

 and, so far as the ordinary examination of the blood goes, the post 

 mortem appearances are similar to those seen after drowning and 

 suffbcatlon. I have many reasons for believing that the materia morbi 

 of cl'.olera is a nearly allied animal poison. If so, may we not hope 

 to know something definite of the poison of hydrophobia, small pox, 

 scarlet i'cvar, and indeed of all zymotic diseases ? 



" I will not take up your space further, as I intend to discues the 

 whole subjecl, which abounds with matter of the deepest importance 

 to physiology and medicine, as critically as possible in my lectures at 

 the University, which recommence next week, when I hope also to 

 show the presence of the poison of our Australian snakes in the blood 

 of bitten and inoculated animals, and to make some experiments on 

 the possibility of saving life." 



In estimating the value of the foregoirtg extremely interesting paper, 

 it will be well to bear in mind the extreme susceptibility of the blood 

 corpuscles to the action of oxygen when exposed to its influence in 

 the air after removal from the vessels. The living germinal nuclei 

 seen by Dr. Halford in the corpuscles of the snake-bitten animal after 

 death may have been formed whilst the blood was being mounted as 

 a microscopical object. This is the more likely in a hot country like 

 Australia (Melbourne, I believe, vvas the spot where the experiments 

 were made), and it is only in the last number of Scientific Opinion' 

 that I observe an article showing that the nucleus, said to distinguish 

 the blood corpuscle of Mammalia, is due only to delay in mounting 

 blood as an object, and with care may be observed to form : hence 

 my caution. 



Shortly after this I find, in the ' British Medical Journal,' the follow- 

 ing, showing that Professor Halford (Holford.?) had been trying some 

 experiments for saving life in cases of snake-bite : — 



" We have received from Mr. Paget, of St. Bartholomew's Hospital, 

 some details forwarded for publication by Professor Halford, of Mel- 

 bourne, of three successful cases in which poisoning by the bite of 

 venomous snakes has been tiealed by the injection of ammonia iuLo 



