348 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 



nificant. Some experts concluded he was poisoned, while the toxical principles 

 had been ordinarily fabricated by the putrefaction of his remains. Animals then 

 like vegetables, can manufacture poisons. 



A distinction must be kept in view between toxical virus, the product of de- 

 composition, and the venom of saliva and serpents. A low temperature will de- 

 stroy virus, but a trace of virus will, if introduced into the organism, spread with 

 a fearful rapidity. Venom can be submitted to a temperature of 280°, during 

 three hours, and never lose its toxical properties. Besides venoms act in propor- 

 tion to their weight. Virus is animated, can reproduce and develop itself. 

 Venom is a chemical compound or a poison acting chemically. In poisoning by 

 venom, the muscles never contract under the influence of an electric current. 

 Venom can be boiled, filtered, treated in alcohol, and still retain its toxical qual- 

 ity ; its active principle must then be an alkaloid, not a ferment. Professor Gau- 

 tier has discovered an infallible specific against venom; not tannin, or turpentine 

 or ammonia, but a solution of caustic, potash or soda ; hoice, the necessity when 

 traveling to have a preparation of either in the pocket medicine-case. When 

 bitten by a serpent, tie instantly the part tighdy above the wound, to arrest the 

 circulation of the blood, for in less than half a minute the poison can be convey- 

 ed through the whole system ; inject the bite next with the solution of potash. 

 Other practical lesson, avoid allowing dogs to lick your hands. In the case of 

 stings of insects, ammonia is efficacious, and if the neck of the bottle be placed 

 over the wound, inflammation will be kept down ; the active principle in the 

 venom of a wasp, etc., is acid, and hence, can be dissolved by ammonia. In 

 the venom of serpents, etc., its principle does not dissolve in ammonia, but it is 

 neutralized by caustic, potash and soda. 



There are no indications that the mania for undercooked beefsteaks is on the 

 decline; in restaurants, only such are served. This refers to robust people, but 

 weakly persons continue to patronize pounded raw chops and steaks, and the 

 juice of uncooked meat. M. Toussaint exposes the grave dangers of patronizing 

 such a dietary, as, if the meat be unsound, the germs of disease will inevitably 

 pass into the system. He states no contagious malady possesses greater virulence 

 than tubercular affections, or consumption, and that is the form of the disease 

 most to be encountered in meat sent to the market. In the slaughter-houses, an 

 ox, etc., is not rejected as unfit for food, unless the lung be entirely affected, but 

 grey granulations may still exist and produce infection. M. Toussaint took the 

 lung of a cow not at all much affected with consumption ; he placed it under a 

 press and collected the juice; he inoculated rabbits and young pigs wiih the liquid 

 as it came from the press, and after he had heated another portion to 114° F., 

 the result was, all the subjects died within a very short period. He extracted the 

 juice in the same manner from the thigh of a pig, dead from consumption, pre- 

 viously cooking the flesh, to correspond with that served in hotels, etc., according 

 to the latest lashion. Then he inoculated rabbits with such grilled juice, and 

 they also invariably died of consumption. There are cases where the consump- 



