DR. TH. NEUMANN. Ill 



will be before the same disintegration of vessels, and the 

 same loss of power in the blood to clot, occurs in hun- 

 dreds of places remote from the spot first poisoned. 



Now as bacteria are always present in fresh poison, 

 enough enter a wound to account for the fact that 

 animals envenomed swarm within an hour or two with 

 these organisms which cause putrefaction. The rate of 

 increase is inconceivably great, and seems to be favored 

 by the poison which provides them with some mysteri- 

 ous conditions of growth. Thus it is that the blood, the 

 nerve centers, the vessels, are all in turn attacked by 

 these fearfully destructive poisons, that the blood itself 

 thus infected becomes poisonous, that the venom does 

 not loose its fatal properties after the death of the snake 

 or even after a number of years, that the careless 

 handling of alcohol for instance, in which poisonous 

 snakes were preserved, may prove disastrous. 



Now, cobra poison contains about 98 per cent, of pep- 

 tone, rattlesnake poison about five per cent., the re- 

 maining percentage in either case being the other com- 

 ponent in question. Thus it is that the local appear- 

 ances of the bite in either case are readily recognizable, 

 and that in most cases the general phenomena would en- 

 able us to say which snake had bitten. Likewise, as 

 venom peptone passes with ease through membranes, 

 we understand readily why cobra poison may not be 

 swallowed with impunity, whereas it is possible to feed 

 animals on rattlesnake poison day after day and see 

 them live and be happy and comfortable. 



These two components mixed together, or in other 

 words, the real snake poison, will of course work far 

 more disastrously than one by itself, neither alone pro- 

 duces the tremendous and perfect effects seen when both 

 are combined by mischievous nature in a suitable 

 solution. 



The effects of a snake bite depend, however, also on 



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