GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS. 157 



appearances in cases of poisoning in different kinds of snake-bite — and suggests 

 immediately the cause of the frightful local changes which are seen after the bite 

 of the Crotalidse but scarcely at all in Cobra-poisoning. It must not, however, be 

 supposed that the peptones or globulins for instance are absolutely identical physio- 

 logically in every venom, as they are probably modified physiologically as well as 

 chemically, although we do not doubt that on the whole the type of action is 

 carried throughout all species. Cobra venom does not produce the marked lesions 

 of Crotalus-poisoning because it is so lacking in globulins ; it is weak in the pro- 

 duction of the local swelling and blackening of the parts, of the ecchymoses, of the 

 altered corpuscles and of the non-coagulability of the blood, but the effects of Cobra 

 venom are closely in accord with the actions peculiar to peptones. The peptone of 

 Cobra seems to have a more decided power in producing convulsions than that of 

 the rattlesnake. 



The fact that the active principles of venom are proteids, and closely related 

 chemically to elements normally existing in the blood, renders almost hopeless the 

 search for a chemical antidote which can prove available after the poison has 

 reached the circulation, since it is obvious that we cannot expect to discover any 

 substance which when placed in the blood will destroy the deadly principles of 

 venom without inducing a similar destruction of vital components in the circu- 

 lating fluid. The outlook then for an antidote for venom which may be available 

 after the absorption of the poison lies clearly in the direction of a physiological 

 antagonist, or, in other words, of a substance which will oppose the actions of venom 

 upon the most vulnerable parts of the system. The activities of venoms are, how- 

 ever, manifested in such diverse ways and so profoundly and rapidly that it does not 

 seem probable that we shall ever discover an agent which will be capable at the 

 same time of acting efficiently in counteracting all the terrible energies of these 

 poisons. 



It is now most desirable that our discovery of the complex chemical nature of 

 venoms should be made the groundwork in India of a study of the poison of the 

 Bungarus, the Daboia, and especially of the dangerous Hydrophidea?. So far all 

 efforts on our part to obtain the venoms of Australian and South American snakes 

 have failed, so that these and the dreaded Vipere Fer-de-lance and the large Elaps 

 of Mexico remain so far really unstudied. 



