46 THE VENOMS OF CERTAIN THANATOPHIDE^E. 



rapidly do these hemorrhages spread that they can literally be seen to grow under 

 the eye. Another portion of the intestine was exposed, and upon the peritoneum 

 was placed a very small portion of the glycerine solution of venom (prepared in 

 1862), which has already been referred to. Ten minutes after the application 

 small points of extravasation appeared, and in three minutes more had increased 

 so much in number and spread so rapidly as to form a continuous area of bleeding 

 surface. Four drops of the glycerine solution of venom in a little water were 

 boiled and carefully evaporated to a thick paste and then applied to a fresh surface 

 of the peritoneum. After one hour no ecchymoses appeared. 



In another experiment 0.03 gram of the dried Moccasin venom was boiled and 

 injected into the peritoneal cavity of a pigeon. The animal died in forty-two 

 minutes, when we found large ecchymoses scattered over all the abdominal viscera. 

 In later experiments we have fully determined that the venom peptone may cause 

 ecchymoses, but that this power exists in an insignificant degree as compared with 

 that of the globulins. 



In another experiment, not irrelevant here, we injected one drop of the fresh 

 venom from the Crotalus adamanteus into one of the mesenteric arteries of an 

 etherized rabbit. In a few seconds ecchymotic patches appeared on the large 

 intestine followed by a few on the small intestine, and in another moment the 

 animal was dead. 



In an experiment on an . alligator, elsewhere quoted, the activity with which 

 venom may be absorbed by serous membranes is well illustrated. In a frog 

 death occurred within two hours after the injection of two drops of the fresh 

 venom of the Crotalus adamanteus into the peritoneal cavity. 



In one experiment made upon an etherized rabbit in which 1 drop of fresh Moc- 

 casin venom was dissolved in 1.5 c. c. of distilled water and injected into the 

 peritoneal cavity the animal died in one and a quarter hours. In an autopsy one 

 hour after death, it was found that there was no rigor mortis ; the whole of the 

 inside of the peritoneal cavity was stained, and in places was literally dripping 

 with blood ; the mesentery contained a large amount of blood resembling a free 

 clot. On the surface of the intestines the effusion of blood was of a brilliant red 

 color as though from the arterioles ; the whole interior of the abdominal cavity 

 was stained ; the heart was arrested in systole. 



In still another experiment in Avhich the solution of venom was boiled the results 

 were strikingly different. We dissolved 0.03 gram of dried Moccasin venom (repre- 

 senting a much greater dose than was given in the previous experiment) and after 

 boiling it for a moment filtered it. The filtrate was injected into the peritoneal 

 cavity of a rabbit. The animal was killed after the lapse of one hour and the 

 peritoneal cavity examined. There were absolutely no alterations to be seen in 

 the viscera, excepting one minute spot where there appeared a little reddening. 



The length of time during which the venom used was boiled was not distinctly 

 stated in the notes of some of our observations. The omission was of moment. 



At the time these experiments were made, we did not fully know that while in 

 all venoms — brief boiling throws down the globulins at once — much longer boiling 

 by degrees precipitates, and at last makes innocent the peptones. Apparently it 



