PATHOLOGY. 137 



employed in these experiments, but their description here is unnecessary as not 

 being sufficiently related to the points at issue. 



In relation to the morphology of the micrococci it may be added, that they 

 measure on the average TT fo T of an inch in diameter ; they often appear in pairs, 

 but most commonly in zooglcea masses. They show a distinct aureole, such as is 

 met with in various forms of micrococci. 1 



These aureoles have lately been erroneously described by Friedlander, as peculiar 

 to certain " specific" micrococci in croupous pneumonia. In conclusion, it might 

 be said that the venom micrococci do not appear to differ from the micrococci found 

 in the saliva of men and other animals. 



In order to test whether the venom-micrococci were in any way specific or patho- 

 genetic, and whether they form, or contribute to, the virulence of the venom, inocu- 

 lations with pure cultures of the micrococci were made upon animals. 



As these experiments gave entirely negative results, it is superfluous to enter 

 into details. Suffice it to say that large quantities of the pure micrococci from a 

 sixth generation were injected, in various manners, into rabbits, cats, pigeons, and 

 white rats, but without fatal results ; or without producing any other lesion than 

 occasionally local abscesses, or later on, metastatic abscesses. Sometimes the so- 

 called "miliary tuberculosis of animals" was produced by inoculating with the 

 venom-micrococci. No signs of any lesions resembling those of venom poisoning 

 were observed. 



Experiments made to Study the Anatomical Changes produced by the Venom in liv- 

 ing Animals. Naked Eye Appearances. — Very many years ago Dr. Weir Mitchell 

 described two forms of venom poisoning— -rapid or acute, and slow or chronic. To 

 the latter appear to be relegated by him all those cases in which death is protracted 

 beyond a few hours. This convenient division is justified by certain differences 

 in the mode of termination of venom poisoning, and by the macroscopic and micro- 

 scopic appearances of the lesions induced. 



In the most rapid poisoning, there is frequently nothing appreciable to the naked 

 eye beyond the slight local lesion or here and there minute capillary hemorrhages, 

 when death has been delayed beyond a minute. In examples of chronic poisoning 

 both the local and the systemic changes are enormously more extensive. When 

 animals were subjected to chronic poisoning they were kept under the influence of 

 narcotics, since it had been learned that these agents did not affect the results. 

 No Cobra venom was employed in this series, but only the pure or dried venoms 

 of our own serpents, or else some one or other of the constituents of these poisons. 



The following tables relate the experiments made, and the more striking mor- 

 phological changes : — 



1 See "Memoir on Diphtheria," Report to the National Board of Health, 1882, by H. C. Wood 

 and H. F. Formad. 



18 June, 1886. 



